EU countries were set to try to bridge differences on Europe's escalating migrant crisis at a foreign ministers' meeting Friday, with the shocking image of a dead Syrian toddler washed up on a beach driving calls for binding refugee quotas.

The heartbreaking images of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying dead in the surf -- and his father's emotional account of how the little boy and his four-year-old brother "slipped through my hands" -- have ramped up pressure on political leaders to address Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Germany and France have agreed that the European Union, facing an unprecedented influx of migrants, should impose binding quotas on the numbers member states take in, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.

"I spoke this morning with the French president, and the French-German position, which we will transmit to the European institutions, is that we agree that ... we need binding quotas within the European Union to share the burden. That is the principle of solidarity," Merkel told reporters during a visit in the Swiss capital.

Hundreds of migrants stormed Budapest's main international station early Thursday after police re-opened it following a two-day standoff only to find that train services to western Europe had been suspended.

The main entrance was re-opened around 08:15 am (0615 GMT) and migrants burst in, rushing towards a train standing on one of the platforms, pushing, shoving and fighting with each other to get on board.

A record influx of refugees to Germany has cast an ugly spotlight on its formerly communist east, which has been rocked by a disproportionate wave of racist protests and hate crimes.

Small towns such as Heidenau and Freital have earned nationwide notoriety as neo-Nazis and angry residents have hurled abuse at people fleeing war and misery -- and rocks at police sent to protect those seeking a safe haven.

Harrowing pictures of a drowned Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach brought home the horror of the escalating refugee crisis Thursday as Europe was accused of letting the Mediterranean become a "cemetery" for migrants.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan bluntly blamed EU states for the death of every single migrant who lost their lives making the perilous journey to Europe.

Italy is ready to impose identification checks at Brennero on the border with Austria after receiving a request from Germany for help in easing the flow of migrants into Bavaria, the northern province of Bolzano said Wednesday.

Rome was ready to "reactivate" controls just as it did for the G7 in June, as "a temporary measure to allow Bavaria to reorganise and face the emergency", a statement from the province said.

Hungarian police blocked hundreds of migrants from boarding trains to western Europe from Budapest's main rail station Tuesday, as figures showed more than 350,000 have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean this year.

As hundreds of police, some in riot gear, moved people out of Keleti station, statistics from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) revealed the scale of the crisis in Europe which is facing the biggest movement of people since World War II.

Germany has stepped up arrests of traffickers smuggling migrants into the country, with the number set to top 2,000 and near last year's total by the end of August, police said Monday.

Between January and July this year, police made 1,785 such arrests, while the figure for August was expected to reach 300 to 400, federal police told AFP, confirming a report by Bild daily.

The French prime minister was set to meet EU officials in the refugee pinch point of Calais on Monday as increasingly urgent efforts to deal with migration into Europe exposed divisions across the continent.

France is expecting several million euros more in aid from Brussels, a government source said, to help deal with the thousands of migrants and refugees camped out in "The Jungle" around the northern port, hoping to reach Britain.

Germany may have witnessed violent anti-refugee protests this week -- but the message from the country's media and celebrities is a loud and determined welcome for people fleeing the horrors of war.

"We're helping," Germany's Bild newspaper splashed in large letters on its front page on Saturday.