Europe Ministers Meet in Paris

PARIS (AP) -- European ministers are meeting in Paris in a new step to find an accord on the divisive issue of how to deal with migrants crossing the Mediterranean but, shut out by Italy and unwanted elsewhere, caught in political standoffs.

Absent at Monday's closed-door meeting of interior and foreign ministers was Italy's populist Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who tweeted a day earlier his disagreement with letting France and Germany determine refugee policy. In another tweet he said that "we intend to make ourselves respected."

France has stressed the need for European countries to share arriving migrants, often traveling on traffickers' flimsy boats and rescued by NGOs.

The meeting, called at the initiative of President Emmanuel Macron, precedes talks later Monday between the French leader and U.N. chiefs for refugees and migration.

(KR)