(ANSA) - Rome, July 5 - Austria on Wednesday rethought its threat to deploy troops and armoured personnel carriers to guard against migrant crossings at its border with Italy.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said Vienna would not deploy anti-migrant troops at the Brenner Pass border with Italy. "Austria will not carry out any controls on the Brenner borders at the moment and it is not set to resort to using the army in the immediate future," he said.

Sources at the premier's office in Rome said they welcomed the Austrian government's rethink. The collaboration between the two police forces, the sources stressed, is producing excellent fruit and is based on both sides' respect for European rules, without any need for troops or military vehicles. Premier Paolo Gentiloni phoned Kern on the issue earlier Wednesday.

Austrian armored vehicles remained in their barracks Wednesday after Vienna threatened to deploy four of them and over 700 troops to the Brenner Pass border with Italy to guard against migrant crossings. "It's a matter of being ready" said Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka is set to meet Italian counterpart Marco Minniti in Rome on Wednesday, when the case will be top of the agenda.

Minniti and Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano on Wednesday were set to brief parliament ahead of tomorrow's informal EU interior ministers' meeting in Tallinn.

That meeting will discuss Rome's calls for greater burden sharing and for a code of conduct for NGOs picking up migrants off Libya, and the possibility - already ruled out by France and Spain - of foreign rescue ships docking in ports outside Italy.

It will also discuss an EU proposal for a migrant coordination centre in Libya.

Austria's ambassador to Rome René Pollitzer said Wednesday the anti-migrant measures mooted at the Brenner Pass including the deployment of four armoured vehicles and 750 troops would only be taken "in the event of an emergency." Pollitzer was summoned to the Italian foreign ministry on Tuesday. An Austrian foreign ministry spokesman said Wednesday Rome had voiced "disappointment at Vienna's initiatives".

Meanwhile the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) said in its annual report Wednesday that Italy received almost 123,000 asylum applications in 2016, a 47% gain on 2015.

The 122,960 applications make up 9.5% of the European Union total. Most, 22%, of asylum seekers in Italy are Nigerian, EASO said. Germany topped the rankings again with 745,155 applications, a 58% rise on the previous year and accounting for 58% of all European asylum requests. EASO also said 2016 was a record year for migrant crossings on the central Mediterranean route, up 18% to 181,459 migrants. It was the main access route to Europe and Italy was the "main point of entry", EASO said.

