Updated

Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing Germany's European Union partners to share the burden of hosting a surge of asylum-seekers, arguing that solidarity should be a "matter of course."

The bloc's 28 members are at odds over an EU plan to divide up refugees arriving largely in Italy and Greece, setting commitments for each country to host a certain number. Only about 10 nations favor it and even supporters want changes in how the refugee distribution is calculated.

Germany is one of the major hosts of asylum-seekers. Merkel told lawmakers Thursday that "all member states have a responsibility to participate on an appropriate scale in taking in refugees."

She said: "It cannot be that three-quarters of all asylum-seekers are taken in by only five European Union member states."