Romania ready to host 200 Tunisian migrants: president

(BUCHAREST) - Romania is ready to host 200 Tunisian migrants, President Traian Basescu said Sunday, following calls from Italy for help after it received an influx of migrants from troubled north Africa.

"After talks with the government and the relevant institutions, we have decided to inform (Italian) Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that Romania can host 200 migrants," Basescu said during a press conference.

"Mr Berlusconi called on the European Union to help and this was Romania's reaction," he added.

Basescu said Romania has five regional centres which could take in a total of 430 asylum seekers.

Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has urged European neighbours to help his country cope with a "human tsunami" that overwhelmed its tiny island of Lampedusa since revolutions erupted in Tunisia and Libya earlier this year.