In a speech to an African Union (AU) ceremony, Gaddafi added that African and European leaders should meet soon to discuss the phenomenon, which has soared to unprecedented levels and touched off internal political disputes in many European states.

"In our final statement we will ask Europe to pay 10 billion euros per year if it really wants to stop migration toward Europe," Gaddafi said.

He was speaking at a AU gathering of African presidents and prime ministers marking the seventh anniversary of a summit of African leaders that decided to set up the African Union and set out a timetable for doing so.

"We want an African European summit as soon as possible. We want to be considered as partners. We want support but without preconditions," he said.

He added without elaborating: "Earth belongs to everybody. Why they (young Africans) emigrated to Europe -- this should be answered by Europeans."

A July 2006 report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said that at least 200,000 Africans enter Europe clandestinely every year. Another 100,000 try but are intercepted, and countless others try but lose their way or their lives, it said.

Some leave from West Africa in rickety boats trying to reach the Canary islands. Others try to cross the Sahara desert and then try to cross the Mediterranean via Morocco or Libya. Still others leave via Somalia to try to get into Europe or the Gulf via Yemen.

The tally of illegal Sub-Saharan Africans coming ashore in the Canaries has risen sharply -- more than 21,000 so far this year, more than five times the 2005 total.

Spain, in the frontline of Europe's fight to curb clandestine migration, has lost patience with what it sees as a poor response from African countries to its pleas for help.

In Madrid's toughest comments yet, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega on Sept 4 accused African governments of failing to fulfil agreements pledging to combat illegal migration.

Ministers from more than 50 African and European nations agreed at a meeting in Morocco in July on a broad raft of measures to jointly combat illegal migration. Among the moves they agreed was clamping down on trafficking and policing coastlines better.