African leaders have created an organisation that will help co-ordinate national migration policies and improve relations with foreign partners.

Speaking at an African Union summit in Mauritania, the Moroccan foreign minister, Nasser Bourita, said the body would be called the African Observatory for Migration and Development.

Mr Bourita rejected a European Union proposal to allow migrants rescued in international waters to be processed in so-called regional disembarkation platforms outside Europe.

He said it would be counter-productive.