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The EU’s foreign policy chief has called for a broad alliance to tackle terror, including with Muslim nations, at a summit of EU foreign ministers.
Federica Mogherini said there had to be more co-operation both with Muslim countries and internally within the EU.
The Brussels summit follows gun attacks in Paris that killed 17 people and anti-terrorism raids in Belgium.
Two of the Paris gunmen said they were “avenging” French cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The first issue of Charlie Hebdo published after staff at the French magazine were massacred carried a new cartoon of the Prophet on its cover, sparking angry protests in parts of the Muslim world.
In Brussels, the foreign ministers were meeting ahead of a special leaders’ summit on terrorism on 12 February.
Talks were expected to include discussions on the return of radicalised Europeans who have spent time fighting in Iraq and Syria.
Ms Mogherini said: “The threat is not only the one we faced in Paris, but is also spreading in many other parts of the world, starting from Muslim countries.
“We need to strengthen our way of co-operating together first of all with Arab countries and then internally. We need to share information more, we need to co-operate more.”
Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi, who attended the talks alongside the 28 EU foreign ministers, said: “Every country in the world is suffering from terrorism”.
“It is not just a military or security issue, it covers the intellectual, cultural, media and religious spheres,” he added.
Soldiers have been patrolling Belgian cities as part of security measures
Speaking before the talks began, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Muslim countries had “suffered the greatest burden of terrorism”.
Among specific measures to be discussed, he said, was passenger name records within Europe.
In other developments as the ministers were meeting:
- Tens of thousands of people rallied in Grozny, capital of Russia’s mainly Muslim region of Chechnya, to protest against Charlie Hebdo
- In Gaza City, the Palestinian group Hamas allowed a demonstration against the magazine by Salafists, at which a French flag was burnt
- A planned rally by Germany’s “anti-Islamisation” Pegida group was called off after police received a threat against one of the organisers
- Hundreds attended an anti-Islam rally in the Czech capital Prague and a Pegida-style march was due to take place in the Danish capital Copenhagen
Palestinian demonstrators burnt a French flag in Gaza City on Monday
Up to 350,000 attended the anti-Charlie Hebdo protest in Grozny
Hundreds of people attended the anti-Islam rally in Prague
Other measures believed to be on the table are tighter border controls within the Schengen area and the fight against illegal arms-trafficking.
EU interior ministers will discuss their response when they gather in Riga on 29 January.
On Thursday, members of the US-led coalition against Islamic State will meet in London. US Secretary of State John Kerry will attend.
Extradition request
The Brussels talks come after anti-terror raids in Belgium, France and Germany led to more than 20 arrests.
Belgian police killed two suspected jihadists in the town of Verviers last Thursday and five people arrested were with “participating in the activities of a terrorist group”.
Ben Bland reports on the heightened security across Europe
Several people were also arrested in the Greek capital, Athens, on Saturday. Belgium is asking Greece to extradite one of the suspects over a possible link with the alleged Belgian plot.
Belgian police are still searching for Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged leader of the cell suspected of planning to kill Belgian police officers.
No link has been established between the Belgian case and last week’s attacks in France.
Gunmen in Paris killed 12 people at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman and four hostages at a kosher supermarket. The three gunmen involved were shot dead by police.
The attacks drew international outrage and a huge anti-terrorism rally in Paris attended by many world leaders.
The EU said on Monday it would appeal against a European court ruling last month that it must remove Hamas from its list of terrorist organisations.
As a result of the appeal, Hamas will remain on the list and its assets will stay frozen pending a judgment by the Court of Justice, the highest legal authority.
BBC