EU seeks to tweak Turkey deal to make it legal

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Migrants are lined up as they disembark the German naval vessel Frankfurt Am Main in the Sicilian harbour of Pozzallo, Italy, March 16, 2016.

European Union officials added last-minute tweaks to a pact with Turkey to halt the flow of migrants into Europe in an effort to make it legally watertight, but a standoff with Cyprus could yet scupper any deal at a summit this week.

A rescue worker carries a child as they disembark the German naval vessel Frankfurt Am Main in the Sicilian harbour of Pozzallo, Italy, March 16, 2016.

A man falls on the ground as refugees and migrants grab goods donated by volunteers from a truck at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, Greece March 16, 2016

Refugees and migrants grab goods donated by volunteers from a truck at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, Greece March 16, 2016.

A boy holds a bag as refugees and migrants grab goods donated by volunteers from a truck at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, Greece March 16, 2016

Refugees and migrants grab goods donated by volunteers from a truck at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, Greece March 16, 2016.

Refugees and migrants grab goods donated by volunteers from a truck at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, Greece March 16, 2016.

Migrants are inspected by policemen as they disembark the German naval vessel Frankfurt Am Main in the Sicilian harbour of Pozzallo, Italy, March 16, 2016

Under a tentative agreement reached last week, Ankara would take back all migrants and refugees who enter the EU from its shores or are detained in its territorial waters, in return for more money, faster visa-free travel for Turks and a speeding up of its slow-moving EU membership negotiations.

For its part, the EU would admit one legal Syrian refugee directly from Turkey for each one trying to reach Europe by boat and taken back by Turkey from the Greek islands in a step meant to wreck the business model of people smugglers.

"We are certainly not giving Turkey a free ride," European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said. Ankara would have to enact a raft of measures within six weeks if Turks were to get visa-free travel to the 26-nation Schengen area in June.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing hardest for the deal after suffering heavy losses in regional elections on Sunday due to public anger over an uncontrolled influx of more than 1 million migrants into Germany last year.

Merkel told parliament in Berlin on the eve of the Brussels summit that no one should be "deceived" by a relative lull in arrivals since Austria and Balkan countries shut their borders.

More than 43,000 migrants and refugees are bottled up in squalid conditions in Greece after Macedonia closed its border, and more are arriving daily despite NATO's Aegean sea patrols.

"The current easing that Germany and some other member states are experiencing is one thing. The situation in Greece is the other, and it must be a big concern to us all because it is not without consequences for us all in Europe," Merkel said.