Bulgaria has already asked the EU Commission for help to beef up security along its border with Greece, Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said on Thursday.

After the last Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, she told reporters that the government had also received offers from other EU member states willing to help on a bilateral basis, the Interior Ministry's press office quoted Bachvarova as saying.

Separately, a day before the meeting British media announced the UK's government had decided to give as a gift 40 Land Rover military vehicles to Bulgaria to help prevent irregular migration.

The minister added EU countries had agreed no-one was interested in the creation of a new route for migrants alternative to the one through the Western Balkans, which was practically closed after countries along the route announced they were tightening border security in view of an agreement reached at an EU-Turkey summit.

Bachvarova also said she had informed counterparts that security measures that are to be agreed with regard to Greece-Turkey border should also be applied to Turkey's frontier with Bulgaria.

Ealier on Thursday, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov warned that the EU should work to avoid the creation of a Bulgarian route for migrants willing to reach Western Europe.