GERMANY -ITALY- AUSTRIA

EUROPEAN security officials talk tough on migration :

The top security officials of Germany. Italy and Austria are touting their hard line on migration issues, saying Europe needs to protect its exterior borders and crack down on human smuggling.

Germany's Horst Seehofer held talks with Austrian and Italian counterparts, Herbert Kicji and Matteo Salvini, Thursday morning ahead of a wider meeting of European Union Interior Ministers.

Kickl says the group wants "to send a clear message to the world, and especially to the traffickers, that it won't be possible anymore in the future, shouldn't be possible anymore to step on European soil, if you don't have a right to protection."

Seehofer says the ministers, all hardliners on migration, are seeking  European solutions, but "all three of us know that this is going to be Herculean task."  [Agencies]