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LONDON, March 9 (AFP) - Asylum seekers entering Britain will be flown to processing camps in Albania, under government proposals aimed at deterring refugees from coming to the country, a London newspaper reported Sunday.

Asylum seekers would be sent to specially built detention centres in Albania where their cases would be dealt with, The Sunday Telegraph said.

"We want to deter asylum seekers from coming to Britain and we would like to set up a processing centre in Albania to help achieve that," the paper quoted a government official as saying.

"We would prefer this to be an EU-wide scheme to which everybody contributes, but we are prepared to go it alone should we need to," he added.

The Telegraph said Albania, Europe's poorest nation, would welcome financial support in return for housing asylum seekers.

Plans to pay Albania to establish the centres will be put to European ministers at a Brussels meeting on March 21, the paper added.

A record 110,700 asylum seekers arrived in Britain last year, according to official figures. 

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