Finland's prime minister Juha Sipilä has promised to open his own home to asylum seekers coming to the country and has urged all Finns to help with the refugee crisis.

Mr Sipilä, who spends most of his time in Helsinki, said his home in Kempele in the country's north was little used at the moment and would house asylum seekers from the start of next year.

"We should all take a look in the mirror and ask how we can help," Mr Sipila told national broadcaster YLE.

European leaders are struggling to agree to policies to deal with a huge influx of migrants, many of whom are fleeing war in Syria.

Mr Sipilä said a European Union plan to distribute 120,000 asylum seekers arriving in Greece, Italy and Hungary to countries around the EU should be voluntary and that he hoped Finland would set an example for other countries.

The announcement came after thousands of exhausted asylum seekers streamed into Austria after being bussed to the border by the Hungarian government, which gave up trying to hold them back after days of confrontation and chaos.

Austrian police said about 4,000 refugees had arrived since the early morning hours, with many more to come.

Mr Sipilä, whose Centre Party is in coalition with the anti-immigrant Finns Party, has repeatedly advocated greater solidarity with those seeking refuge in Europe from wars and hardship in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Refugee centres in the Nordic country of around 5 million inhabitants are being severely strained by an unprecedented flow of arrivals.

The sparsely populated north-west region where Mr Sipilä's country house is located is particularly lacking in refugee accommodation.

Finland's government yesterday doubled its estimate for the number of asylum seekers in the country this year to up to 30,000, more than seven times the amount it received in 2014.

AFP