European leaders agreed to co-operate to manage migrants crossing the Balkans but offered no quick fix to a crisis that threatens to take more lives as winter sets in.
Meeting in Brussels as another woman and two children died at sea off Turkey, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met leaders of nine other countries for talks.
The 11 governments issued a pledge to work together, along with a 17-point action plan that includes United Nations-aided accommodation for 100,000 people, half of them in Greece.
"Unilateral action may trigger a chain reaction," a joint statement said.
States have sealed off borders or moved and deposited busloads of undocumented migrants at their neighbours' frontiers, the statement added.
"Countries affected should therefore talk to each other. Neighbours should work together along the route," the statement said.
President of the European Union executive and meeting host Jean-Claude Juncker said: "We have made very clear that the policy of simply waving people through must be stopped."
Chancellor Merkel, whose poll ratings are sinking as she has opened Germany's borders to hundreds of thousands of Syrians, called for the meeting just ten days after the last of several full EU summits devoted to the migration crisis.
She said it was urgent to find a humane solution for tens of thousands of people stuck behind closing Balkan borders as autumn turns cold and wet.
"The pictures of the last few days are not in line with our values," she said after extracting agreement from her peers to provide shelter, food and care for people on the move, helped where needed by EU aid and cheap international loans.
"Europe must show it is a continent of values, a continent of solidarity," she said. "This is a building block, but we need to take many further steps.
She also stressed the need to continue negotiations with Turkey, the main transit country to Europe for not only Syrian and Iraqi refugees but also large numbers of Afghans and Pakistanis viewed in the EU as unwanted economic migrants.
