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ByRafCasert and Lorne Cook The Associated Press BRUSSELS European Union leaders tussled with Turkey over how to control the flow of asylum-seek- ers from the Middle East in a diplomatic tug-of-war Monday that left the fate of thousands of refugees seek- ing a way to safety people fleeing war hanging in the balance. Daylong negotiations be- tweenthe28-nationblocand Turkey edged toward mid- night with both sides seek- ing more as part of any new agreement. Turkey, home to 2.75 million refugees chiefly from neighboring Syria, surprised EU counterparts by demanding a doubling of funding beyond the 3 bil- lion euros ($3.3 billion) al- ready pledged. Turkey insisted that any agreement would require Europe to advance Tur- key's long-delayed hope of joining the bloc. As an ad- ditional step, Turkey said it expects EU nations to ease its visa restrictions on Turk- ish citizens within months. "Turkey is ready to work with the EU, and Turkey is ready to be a member of the EU as well," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davatoglu told reporters in Brussels. "Our objective is to res- cue the lives of the refu- gees (and) to fight against human smugglers," he said. For its part, the EU sought to gain stronger commitments from Turkey to take back refugees who have reached European shores and ease a crisis that has left an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 souls encamped in the wintry cold on the Greece-Macedonia border. "To stop refugees arriv- ing in Greece, we have to cooperate with Turkey," French President Francois Hollande said. In a draft statement pre- pared for the talks, seen by The Associated Press, the leaders said they were seek- ing an agreement to return to Turkey any newcomers who could not qualify for legal refugee protection. The draft statement said the EU and Turkey would pursue "comprehensive, large scale and fast track re- turns to Turkey of all irreg- ular migrants not in need of international protection." But Davutoglu upped the ante Monday, calling for an- other 3 billion euros in EU aid for Turkish-based refu- gees by 2018 on top of the 3 billion already pledged to arrive by 2017. The aid would be designed to im- prove the quality of life in their often crowded, squalid camps. In Ankara, the Turkish capital, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the EU of failing to pro- vide enough of the already pledged funds. He also criti- cized Europe for refusing to accept asylum seekers more readily, linking that policy to needless deaths as thou- sandsopttocrossillegallyby seafromtheTurkishcoastto offshore Greek islands. "We are not sending them. They are going by sea and many of them are dy- ing. We have rescued close to 100,000 from the sea," Erdogan said in a speech. Turkey is seeking a new EU commitment to take Syrians and other high-per- centage refugee applicants via safe travel routes, such as at the land border be- tween Turkey and Greece, to reduce drowning deaths in the Aegean Sea. Overshadowing the sum- mit diplomacy is Turkey's questionable human rights record. On Friday, Turkish police stormed the head- quarters of an anti-govern- ment newspaper to enforce a court order placing the paper and its sister outlets under new management. Police spent the weekend using tear gas and water cannons to quell street pro- tests. Hollande said that EU cooperation with Turkey should not be interpreted as European acceptance of Turkish rights restrictions. "The press must be free ev- erywhere, including in Tur- key," he said. Of immediate concern was the plight of people stuck at Greece's northern border with non-EU mem- ber Macedonia, which for the past year has been one of the most popular routes for asylum seekers to reach central Europe via the Bal- kans. Hundreds of thou- sands of people have used the route in recent months to try to reach Germany, Sweden and other preferred destinations. Macedonia now has ef- fectively sealed off that route, a position backed by Austria, Croatia, Ser- bia, Slovenia and Hungary. Cash-strapped Greece has struggled to cope with the rapid buildup of humanity. DIPLOMACY Turkey demands money to he lp E U ta ck le m ig ra nt c ri si s GEERTVANDENWIJNGAERT—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, second le , waves as he leaves an EU summit in Brussels on Monday. AHN YOUNG-JOON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A U.S. Army soldier sits on an armored vehicle during an annual exercise in Yeoncheon, near the border with North Korea, on Monday. By Foster Klug The Associated Press SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA North Korea on Monday issued its latest belliger- ent threat, warning of an indiscriminate "pre-emp- tive nuclear strike of jus- tice" on Washington and Seoul, this time in reac- tion to the start of huge U.S.-South Korean mili- tary drills. Such threats have been a staple of young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un since he took power after his dictator father's death in December 2011. But they spike especially when Washington and Seoul stage what they call annual defensive spring- time war games. Pyong- yang says the drills, which started Monday and run through the end of April, are invasion rehearsals. The North's powerful National Defense Com- mission threatened strikes against targets in the South, U.S. bases in the Pacific and the U.S. main- land, saying its enemies "are working with blood- shot eyes to infringe upon the dignity, sovereignty and vital rights" of North Korea. "If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be re- duced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment," the North's statement said. Responding to the North's threat, South Ko- rean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said Monday that North Korea must re- frain from a "rash act that brings destruction upon it- self." In Washington, State Department John Kirby said the U.S. takes the North Korean threats seri- ously. He called on Pyong- yang to cease provocative rhetoric and behavior. "There would not be as compelling a reason to prepare for alliance capa- bilities," Kirby told a news briefing, "if Pyongyang wasn't so intent on rais- ing the stakes on the pen- insula" and decreasing any sense of security and sta- bility there. This year's war games will be the largest ever staged, involving 300,000 South Korean and 17,000 U.S. troops. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, cit- ing military sources, re- ported that the allies will work on drills for precision attacks on North Korean leadership and its nuclear and missile arsenal in the event of war. A pre-emptive large- scale military strike that would end the authori- tarian rule of the Kim dy- nasty is highly unlikely. NKorea threatens nuke st ri ke s on U S, S Ko re a US-SOUTH KOREAN MILITARY DRILLS By Martin Crutsinger The Associated Press WASHINGTON Federal Re- serve Vice Chairman Stan- ley Fischer said Monday that inflation in the U.S. may be starting to tick up from too- lowlevels,akeyconditionfor further interest rate hikes. "Wemaywellatpresentbe seeingthefirststirringsofan increase in the inflation rate — something that we would like to happen," he said in a speech in Washington. However, another Fed official, Lael Brainard, ex- pressed uncertainty about whether an improving job market would be enough to bolster inflation, given per- sistently low oil prices and a strong dollar. Inflation has "persistently underper- formed" relative to the Fed's target of annual price gains of 2 percent, she said. The two Fed officials' views underscore how the Fed is wrestling with a prolonged period of muted price gains and its timeta- ble for rate hikes. In Decem- ber, the Fed raised its key rate from record lows. Policymakers did not raise rates at its January meeting, and officials are expected to leave rates un- changed when they meet again on March 15-16. 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