Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to "tangibly" stem the influx of people to Germany, but has firmly rebuffed calls to shut the door on refugees.
Speaking at a congress of her Christian Democratic Union party, Ms Merkel said Germany would pursue a range of measures to stem the flow of asylum seekers, slated to number around one million people this year.
Right-wing elements of the party have demanded upper limits be placed on the number of newcomers admitted, a demand that has caused infighting among the CDU.
However, Ms Merkel insisted that Germany will continue to live up to its "humanitarian responsibilities".
"We want to tangibly reduce the number of refugees arriving," she said.
"With an approach focused on the German, European and global level, we will succeed in regulating and limiting migration."
However she said Germany had a "moral and political" duty as Europe's top economic power to continue to help the world's desperate people, particularly those from war-ravaged Syria.
"We will live up to our humanitarian responsibility," she said.
Ahead of an EU summit this week, Ms Merkel said she was banking on a multi-pronged approach to cut refugee numbers, urging bolstered protection for the bloc's external borders, support for Turkey to host refugees long-term, and a long-shot bid for a distribution scheme among EU member states.
She also touted a range of measures already undertaken in Germany including extending a list of safe countries of origin, accelerating repatriation of rejected asylum seekers and beefing up staffing to process applicants.
