1ST LEAD Merkel plans to step up response to upsurge in immigration By Jean-Baptiste Piggin, dpa

Berlin (dpa) - Chancellor Angela Merkel is to step up her response next week to a surge in immigration that Germany has termed a major logistical challenge, flying to a city where tensions among immigrants have hit the headlines.She is also set to meet with leaders of Balkan states, the starting place for many of the migrants heading for Germany, and admonish them to fix problems that are driving their populaces to flee.Despite isolated acts of racist violence, Germans appear to accept they are duty bound to take in those fleeing wars. Officials forecast this week that 800,000 people, equivalent to 1 per cent of the country‘s present population, would arrive and demand asylum this year.A monthly survey for the country‘s ZDF television found Friday that a rising majority of Germans are confident their country can cope. The proportion agreeing rose to 60 per cent, from 54 per cent in July.That attitude contrasts with open distaste for refugees in Britain and parts of eastern Europe. German municipalities have begun crash programmes to build emergency hostels and prepare schools for a wave of new pupils.Merkel‘s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said she would travel Tuesday to Marxloh, a poverty-blighted neighbourhood of the western industrial city of Duisburg where Roma, Lebanese and Kurdish immigrants have settled in large numbers and allegedly formed slums.Media claim that police are struggling to keep control in the crowded neighbourhood where many people are unemployed and on welfare.The chancellor is to hear the views of Muslim and Christian leaders and social welfare activists who were nominated by the municipality, Seibert said.Germany has sought to spread the new arrivals evenly nationwide, despite the desire of many migrants to live in big cities with others who speak their language.Berlin is attempting to fast-track hearings for refugees so that most people fleeing Syria‘s civil war will be approved and resettled quickly, while those from six Balkan states are rejected and deported. Three-quarters of ZDF respondents support that.Statistics Friday showed 8,178 deportations in the first half-year, two-thirds to the Balkans, with the number of rejected claimants forced to fly home on chartered jets likely to soar in the second half.Merkel has signalled that migration has now overtaken the Greek bailout crisis as the biggest challenge her government faces."These issues will preoccupy us far, far more than the issue of Greece and the stability of the euro," she said in a TV interview on Sunday.She is to fly Thursday to an Austrian-hosted conference and will discuss with West Balkan leaders in Vienna "the reasons for the departure of so many thousands of people from these countries," her spokesman said."The countries of origin have the obligation to create living conditions that don‘t force anybody to flee," said Seibert.Some hate crimes have marred Germany‘s welcome and right-wing Germans of the Pegida movement marched last year against an alleged Islamization by new arrivals.In the Bavarian town of Neustadt an der Waldnaab, a firebomb was thrown in the small hours of Friday at a former hotel where 19 refugees including children were staying. None was injured, but furniture was badly singed.Police said they were still seeking to establish a motive and locate the culprits, but would not rule out the attack as a hate crime. A resident said he saw two men climbing out a ground-floor window and then fled together with a third man waiting outside.Germany has tried to cut the pace of arrivals by arresting people traffickers and assisting EU member Hungary in closing its open border to Serbia.Bavaria state said it is holding 600 persons in pretrial custody on suspicion of people trafficking.