Austria has bluntly told the EU that it does not want to accept any more refugees, arguing that it has already taken in enough.

Vienna wants an exemption from receiving any more asylum-seekers, in a blow to the EU’s flailing relocation scheme.

Austria took in around 90,000 asylum seekers in 2015, representing more than one percent of its population.

Many of them were Syrians who had fled the war in their homeland and reached Austria after crossing from Turkey to Greece and then following the so-called Balkan route.

"We believe an exception is necessary for Austria for having already fulfilled its obligation. We will discuss that with the European Commission," Christian Kern, the Chancellor, said on Tuesday. "We will send a letter as quickly as possible and then begin discussions." The tough talk was viewed as an attempt by the centrist coalition to undermine support for the far-Right Freedom Party.

Under the plan adopted in September 2015, at the height of the migrant crisis, 160,000 asylum seekers who had made it to Greece and Italy were to be resettled in other EU countries over two years. But so far only around 15,000 have been relocated. The scheme expires in September.