Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday, April 26 called for a reform of the European open-border Schengen treaty, in the wake of what they called a looming 'crisis' of migration from northern Africa.

After a meeting in Rome, the two leaders made their request in a letter to the EU's top officials. The pair also defused their own spat over Tunisian migrants arriving in Italy and attempting to head to France, where many have relatives, in the wake of the Tunisian uprising earlier this year.

'The situation concerning migration in the Mediterranean could rapidly transform into a crisis that would undermine the trust that our compatriots have in the (principle) of freedom of travel within Schengen,' Berlusconi and Sarkozy wrote in their letter.

Addressed to Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso - respectively presidents of the European Council and the European Commission - the letter also requests new agreements with North African nations where ongoing unrest has triggered a wave of migration towards Italy, M & C reported.