EU holds emergency talks on sharing refugees as Germany wearies of going it alone

Migrants arrive from Munich at Schoenefeld train station near Berlin, Sunday Sept. 13, 2015. ( Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP) (The Associated Press)

Boys play with a ball at a tent village for migrants and refugees at the Donnersberg bridge close to the central train station in Munich, Germany, Sunday Sept. 13, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and others are still making their way slowly across Europe, seeking shelter where they can, taking a bus or a train where one is available, walking where it isn't. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP) (The Associated Press)

A small girl walks by a painting of refugee Aylan Kurdi on a board outside of EU headquarters in Brussels on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015. Aylan Kurdi, 3, was found on a Turkish beach in sneakers, blue shorts and a red shirt after the small rubber boat he and his family were in capsized in a desperate voyage from Turkey to Greece. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) (The Associated Press)

European Union interior ministers meet for emergency migration talks on Monday, a day after Germany reintroduced checks at its border with Austria to stem the continuing flow of refugees.

The ministers will try to narrow a yawning divide over how to share responsibility for thousands of migrants arriving daily and ease the burden on frontline states.

Their talks will focus on distributing 160,000 refugees over the next two years.

The arrival of around 500,000 migrants so far this year has taken the EU by surprise and it has responded slowly.

The ministers will confirm the distribution of an initial 40,000 refugees, but this scheme was conceived in May and some nations still do not plan to do their full share before year's end.