The measures will be aimed towards an increased assurance of borders, the establishment of a cap number of undocumented immigrants to be received and the conversion of Austria in a less attractive country for foreigners, he declared.

The European Union's refugee emergency is a bigger threat than Greece, Austria's finance minister said, calling for the bloc's members to confront the issue with the same tenacity they showed when tackling the economic crisis.

The Austrian chancellor said border controls would have to be stepped up "massively".

Human rights groups have expressed fears that the restrictions' knock-on effect risked leaving migrants - including many children - stranded in icy temperatures on the western Balkans route.

Austria announced Wednesday it would limit the number of migrants and refugees granted asylum to no more than 1.5 percent of the population over the next four year, NBC News reported.

They urged Germany to resume applying the EU's Dublin asylum regulations, which say that refugees must seek asylum in the first member country that they land in.

Saying the EU had six to eight weeks to end division and inaction on managing immigration, Mark Rutte told reporters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg that if that failed "we have to think about a plan B".

The country accepted 90,000 claims past year - more than 1% of its population.

State CSU politicians, on the front lines of the migration crisis that still attracts more than 2,000 people daily into the southern German state, have vowed that Dr Merkel will "not be spared" their fury. The German president, the same day, said it may be "morally and politically" necessary to limit numbers.

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees who are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

Spurned by Austria's announcement, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) on Wednesday reiterated its calls for a cap on migrant numbers.

Moreover, around 40 rebels from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party sent her a letter Tuesday demanding an about-face on her liberal refugee policy.

A five-year-old girl and a woman died of cold on Wednesday as they tried to reach Greece by sea, as the flow of migrants heading for Europe resumed following a lull due to high winds.