Italy's foreign minister Angelino Alfano on Tuesday called for the "effective and fair" management of its border with Austria, which wants to stop migrants from trying to cross through the mountainous Brenner Pass.
"The way forward is effective and fair management of our shared border, recalling that until now more people have crossed in to Italy from Austria than the converse," Alfano told daily Corriere della Sera.
Alfano's comments came as Austrian conservative leader and incoming Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Tuesday he would try to form a coalition government with the right-wing Freedom Party after winning this month's national polls.
Kurz's People's Party and the Freedom Party campaigned for tougher immigration controls, quick deportations of failed asylum-seekers and a crackdown on radical Islam.
However Kurz, 31, has said a "basic condition" for his new administration is "a clear pro-European direction".
Austria will hold the EU's rotating presidency in the second half of 2018.
