Meloni also said she had been right to accuse French President Emanuel Macron of splitting the united EU front against Russia's invasion of Ukraine by holding what she termed an "inopportune" three-way summit with President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris Wednesday night.
"Very important steps forward have been taken on some particularly delicate issues," Meloni said.
"I am very satisfied about the issue of migrants.
"Yesterday a principle was established. The approach is changing to one that is very different to what there has been in recent years.
"This approach is put down in black and white by a sentence that it had never been possible to put down before: 'immigration is an EU problem and needs an EU response."
Italy has long argued that, given its geographical position at the centre of the Mediterranean, the current EU system in which the country where asylum seekers arrive have the responsibility of processing claims, puts too much of the burden on it.
At the summit, the EU leaders also agreed on a need to pay more attention to controlling and protecting the bloc's external border and recognised the specific nature of the sea border, something which Italy had been calling for.
Meloni said she was looking for a deal with North Africa to keep migrants there, similar to the six-billion-euro agreement the EU signed with Turkey a few years ago.
In that deal, Ankara gets funding in exchange for cooperation in stopping migrants entering the bloc.
"The European Council sets a framework, then the way in which that is turned in reality makes the difference," Meloni said.
"We have asked for the plan for the central Mediterranean route to be implemented.
"I am sure that we will see this cooperation which, for example, means taking resources and using them for the south, not for the east.
Meloni also said that domestic criticism of her chiding Macron had been "provincial" after she called Wednesday's meeting in Paris "inopportune".
She said "when Italy disagrees, it must say so".
Being in photo-ops was not enough for Rome, she said, stressing that Italy had to be on the inside in any major talks.
Meloni reiterated her view that the three-way Paris meet had been "politically wrong".
Despite the row, the premier said ties with Paris were "not compromised" after domestic critics spoke of a newly "frosty" relationship with Macron.
Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, League leader and chief ally of Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, said "Macron's snottiness is incomprehensible" after the French president was quick to snap back shortly after Meloni's remark, saying: "France and Germany have a special role in supporting Ukraine."
Meloni met Zelensky in Brussels on Thursday and reaffirmed Italy's unswerving support for Kyiv.
She said on Friday that Italy would "soon" send a surface to air missile system to Ukraine along with France to provide a key shield against Russian missile attacks.
ANSA
