The prime ministers of Italy and the Netherlands will travel at the weekend to Tunisia along with the European Commission president, looking to make progress in unblocking loans from the International Monetary Fund for the north African state.

Talks between Tunisia and the IMF for a $1.9 billion loan have been stalled for months.

Europe is especially concerned that, without the funds, Tunisia faces a full-blown financial crisis that could push a fresh wave of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life in Europe.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that she hoped the trip on Sunday could facilitate talks between Tunis and the IMF, adding she was confident a deal could be reached if both parties were open to negotiation.

"The destabilisation of Tunisia would have serious repercussions on the stability of the whole of North Africa ... and those repercussions would also reach us," Meloni said after a meeting in Rome today, Thursday, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will join Meloni and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Tunis. Public discontent in the Netherlands over asylum seekers is one of Rutte's main domestic political problems.

The joint trip follows a meeting between Meloni and President Saied in Tunisia earlier this week.