TURKEY SCRUTINISES DEAL AT EU SUMMIT

(Migrant crisis)

EU leaders are holding talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels in an attempt to reach a deal over the migrant crisis.

An EU proposal would see Turkey offered financial aid and political concessions in return for taking back all migrants travelling to Greece.

EU leaders have watered down the incentives and correspondents say it is unclear if a deal can be done.

Nevertheless, Mr Davutoglu said he was hopeful of finding "common ground".

But he added that he wanted to keep a "humanitarian perspective" on the crisis.

EU leaders agreed on a joint position to put to Turkey after late-night talks. The plan suggests that for every Syrian refugee sent back, another Syrian would be resettled in the EU directly from refugee camps in Turkey.

Ahead of Friday's talks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Turkey had to meet international standards of protection for all migrants.

She said that the legal resettlement of Syrian refugees could start a few days after the first returns from Greece.

However, she added that the EU needed to be ready to start returning migrants from Greece to Turkey rapidly to avoid a "pull factor" creating a surge of migrants before the new system takes effect.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Europe should look at its own record on migrants before it told Turkey what to do.

In an uncompromising speech broadcast on television, he said: "At a time when Turkey is hosting three million (migrants), those who are unable to find space for a handful of refugees, who in the middle of Europe keep these innocents in shameful conditions, must first to look at themselves."

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has warned that the plan to return people to Turkey is "on the edge of international law" and difficult to implement.

Mr Davutoglu has said he will not accept Turkey becoming an "open prison" for migrants.

To meet concerns over the plan's legality, the leaders discussed providing assurances that each person claiming asylum will be given a full hearing in Greece, the BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from Brussels.

Human rights group Amnesty International placed a large screen outside the Brussels summit that read: "Don't trade refugees. Stop the deal."

French President Francois Hollande warned that "I cannot guarantee that there will be a happy outcome" to the search for a solution.

Since January 2015, a million migrants and refugees have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece. More than 132,000 have arrived this year alone.

Tens of thousands are now stuck in Greece as their route north has been blocked.

Crisis explained in seven charts

Under initial proposals, the EU had suggested it would double financial aid to Turkey promised last year, make a fresh push on talks over Turkey's eventual membership of the EU and offer visa-free travel to Europe's Schengen states.

However, those proposals have since been watered down, lowering expectation on greater financial help and talks on EU membership and linking visa-free travel to 72 conditions to which Turkey must agree.

A number of EU countries have raised concerns about what is on offer to Turkey amid a clampdown by the Ankara government on academics and journalists.