GERMANY has said it expects to take in 800,000 asylum-seekers this year as refugees from war-torn regions in the Middle East and Africa continue to travel to the European Union.
In an interview, vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said: "I believe we could certainly deal with something in the order of a half-million for a few years.
"I have no doubt about it - maybe even more."
His comments came as EU countries continue to debate how each one should respond to the refugee crisis.
Hungary and other former east bloc countries have resisted accepting refugees, but Germany has thrown its weight behind a scheme to set a quota for each of the 28 EU nations.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny insisted there is no split in the Coalition over the number of refugees that the Republic should accept.
Mr Kenny said he did not want to get bogged down in the statistics or become fixated on the number of refugees that should be accepted.
Tánaiste Joan Burton has said she expects the Republic will accept 5,000 refugees, but added that number would rise.
Britain is to take in 20,000 people from camps on the borders of Syria over the next five years, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
In Hungary, refugees have been transported to a registration centre as the country aims defuse tensions at its border with Serbia.
Hungary is seen as a gateway into the EU, but Prime Minister Viktor Orban is building a fence to keep the refugees out.
In Greece, the coast guard said its patrol vessels picked up nearly 500 migrants in 11 search and rescue missions over the previous 24 hours in the eastern Aegean Sea.
The people were found in small boats near the islands of Lesbos, Samos, Kos and the islet of Agathonissi.
