Slovakia says it will go to court to challenge quotas for relocating 120,000 asylum seekers approved by European Union ministers.

It comes as EU leaders prepare to meet in Brussels for emergency talks about the migration crisis.

EU's interior ministers on Tuesday voted by a majority in favour of the quota system, which will see migrants in Italy, Greece and Hungary redistributed to other member states.

But Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico says his country - which was one of four nations that voted against the plan - will be challenging the deal in EU courts.

"We will go in two directions: first one, we will file a charge at the court in Luxembourg... secondly, we will not implement the (decision) of the interior ministers," Mr Fico said.

"We have been refusing this nonsense from the beginning, and as a sovereign country we have the right to sue."

And Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban said the migrant crisis should be dealt with within existing laws. He also said his country should "reconsider its relationship with Russia".

But some of the European countries that previously opposed the quota plan have said they are prepared to work with system.

The Czech Republic's prime minister says he will not take legal action against the plan.

Bohuslav Sobotka said: "Even though I don't like the use of the quotas, I don't agree with them and we voted against them, Europe must not fall apart over solving the migrant crisis".

Romania's president, meanwhile, said his country can cope with the extra migrants the EU wants it to take, but disagreed with the way the matter was decided.

Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic all voted against the quota plan to share out refugees from Italy, Greece and Hungary. Finland abstained from voting.

Ireland and Britain - which are not part of Europe's passport-free Schengen borderless area - were not required to take part.

Of the 50,400 refugees being allocated from Greece, the largest number (13,009) will go to Germany.

A further 9,898 will go to France and 6,127 to Spain, while the others will be divided between other countries.

Of the 15,600 refugees being allocated from Italy, Germany again takes the largest number - 4,027 - with France taking 3,064 and Spain 1,896.

The remaining 54,000 were to come from Hungary but this number is now being held "in reserve" until the region's governments decide where they should go.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald spoke to Newstalk Breakfast earlier about the meeting yesterday.

She said that while she understood families are under pressure in Ireland at the moment, we are playing a proportionate part in the crisis.

While members of the Syrian community demonstrate outside the Dáil this evening to explain why Syrians are seeking refuge in Europe.

Jody Clarke of the UN Refugee Agency in Ireland told Newstalk Breakfast that there needs to be better registration and screening processes.