(CNN) -- Tunisia rejected the idea of Italian security forces deploying in the north African country to help fight illegal immigration, the country's state news agency reported Monday.
Tunisia "expressed her amazement at this position and asserts its categorical rejection of any interference in its internal affairs or to prejudice its sovereignty," TAP reported, citing an unnamed "authorized source at the Foreign Ministry."
The source said Tunisia was willing to cooperate with "sister countries" and aimed to discuss the issue "with complete transparency" with Italian officials soon, TAP said Sunday.
The top European Union foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, arrived in Tunisia on Monday for talks, her spokeswoman said.
She's meeting Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi and members of his cabinet, as well as civil society representatives, the EU said.
"We are Tunisia's strongest ally in its move towards democracy," she said.
Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni warned last week of a potential "humanitarian emergency" in the south of his country as waves of Tunisians fleeing unrest in north Africa land on Lampedusa, a tiny Mediterranean island is about 240 miles southwest of Sicily and off the coast of Tunisia.
An average of about 1,000 people a day are now arriving at Lampedusa, said Federico Fossi, a Rome-based official with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
About 2,000 are on the island, housed in migrant reception centers which opened Sunday at the request of U.N. officials, Fossi said. The Tunisians are being transferred to reception centers in Crotone, Agrigento, and Bari, he said.
Fossi said conditions in Lampedusa are calm, but U.N. officials are still urging Italian officials to quickly move the Tunisians to mainland facilities.
Tunisia has been in crisis since December, when protests began against long-time President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He fled the country in January. The country's foreign minister, Ahmed Wanees, resigned on Sunday, the state news agency reported.
Largely due to Italy's policy of pushing back those attempting to flee there from north Africa and the Middle East, crossings from Africa to the island and other sites had all but ceased, the Italian news agency ANSA reported, but tumult in Tunisia last month and more recently in Egypt have restarted them.
Maroni has spoken on the risk of terrorists hiding among former Tunisian jail inmates seeking asylum.
On Friday, Maroni wrote to the European Union asking it for help with the migrants, ANSA reported. He asked that the issue of "the crisis in north African countries and the impact on immigration and Europe's internal security" be discussed at the next meeting of EU justice and interior ministers.
Protests in Tunisia sparked a revolution in Egypt, which on Friday led to longtime President Hosni Mubarak stepping down. Protests have also taken place in Algeria, Yemen, Iraq and Jordan since the Tunisian unrest.
By the CNN Wire Staff