The aim is to tackle the economic and security problems that cause people to flee, and persuade African countries to take back more failed asylum seekers.
The meeting was planned after a sinking off Libya in April. About 800 died.
Some 150,000 people have made the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean from Africa so far this year, arriving mainly in Italy and Malta.
However, the EU`s focus has moved east since April, with large numbers of refugees - mostly Syrians - arriving via Turkey and Greece and then travelling north through the Balkans.
In other developments on Wednesday:
-Germany says it plans to send more Syrian refugees back to the first EU country they entered, after reinstating the Dublin Regulation. The rule does not apply to Greece - one of the main entry points
-Fourteen people, including seven children, drowned after their boat sank off the coast of Turkey
-Slovenia began building wire fences along its border with Croatia. It comes a day after the government said it would install "temporary technical obstacles", but stressed official border crossings would remain open
-Finland is preparing to house asylum-seekers in tents and shipping containers as the flow of refugees picked up again
More than 60 leaders from Africa and Europe, including UK Prime Minister David Cameron, are meeting in Valletta in Malta for the two-day summit starting to discuss the mass movement of people.
The European Commission is setting up a €1.8bn "trust fund" for Africa and has urged member states to match that sum. However, there are doubts about whether they will do so.
`Population to double`
Speaking in the Maltese parliament on the eve of the summit, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk said the plan was to make "much more progress on poverty reduction and conflict prevention".
"It also includes the issue of taking back in an efficient manner those who do not yet qualify for a visa, or those who do not require international protection," he said in a statement.
He added that Africa`s population was expected to double by 2050 and that action was essential, particularly due to the strain placed on EU solidarity by refugees arriving from conflicts in the Middle East.
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