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Germany's finance minister has floated the idea of a European tax on petrol as a means of dealing with the on-going migrant crisis.

Wolfgang Schaeuble told Geman media on Saturday: "If the funds in national budgets and the European budget aren't enough, then let's agree, for example, to raise a levy on every liter of gasoline at a certain level."

The conservative politician made remarks as part of wider comments about the need for European countries to pull their weight with regards to the influx of people escaping war or searching for a better life.

He mentioned the New Years Eve mass sexual assaults on women in Cologne that have been largely blamed on Arab and North African men and argued that they illustrated the need to "step up the pressure" to find "a solution to the problem of controlling the European Union's external borders."

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He said: "The problem must be solved at a European level, otherwise, it won't just be Germany that suffers the consequences, as some seem to think, but our neighbours will be massively affected too, as will the Balkans, and all the way down to Greece.

"Things are moving too slowly in Europe."

Schaeuble is a prominent member of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and added that he fully supported the Chancellor's approach to the crisis.

However, his suggestion was swiftly rejected by deputy party leader Julia Kloeckner.

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She said: "I'm strictly against any tax increase in light of the good budgetary situation."

Germany has taken in a large number of refugees but there is a growing public and political backlash over in some regions.

Earlier on Saturday, Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer threatened to take Merkel's government to court over its 'open doors' refugee policy as political pressure grows for the chancellor to reduce the number of new arrivals.

The discussion comes as the Greek coast guard recovered the bodies of two men and three women in rough seas off the coast of Samos.



