An Armed Forces patrol boat was expected to return to Haywharf early this morning after rescuing 29 Eritreans, as the government strongly dismissed international media reports that Malta was turning a blind eye to the plight of immigrants.

The incident seals a turbulent week for the local authorities as they grapple with hundreds, possibly thousands of Africans fleeing for a better life. Libya, in the meantime, continues to appear reluctant to assist.

According to the Armed Forces of Malta, 26 men, two women and a six-month-old baby were recovered yesterday afternoon from a drifting migrants' boat. Last night they were transferred from the Spanish fishing vessel Hermanos Albatercero to AFM patrol boat P-51 some 85 nautical miles from Malta.

This was the third time in the space of four days that an AFM patrol boat, such as the P-51, was dispatched to the near outer confines of Malta's Search and Rescue Region to pick up migrants in distress.

Neil Falzon, head of the Malta office of the UN agency for refugees, said the immigrants had relayed a distress call to an Eritrean being held in detention at Lyster Barracks on Friday afternoon. Their engine had stalled and they also said that one of the immigrants died yesterday morning. According to Dr Falzon, the AFM initially refused to help since the boat was in Libyan search and rescue waters, but as the hours ticked by, the immigrants drifted into Maltese search waters.

"We were told Libya also ignored the call for assistance," Dr Falzon said, adding that, though a European solution was needed to this dilemma, saving lives should be a priority for all the countries.

Meanwhile, the Government denied media reports that it had barred a French naval frigate from unloading 21 corpses of illegal immigrants in Malta on Friday. The vessel was conducting a routine surveillance mission some 200 nautical miles south when it stumbled over a sea of dead bodies, most of which were in a state of decomposition.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, a Government spokesman gave the rundown of events. On Friday, at 2 p.m., the AFM's Rescue Co-ordination Centre received a message from their French counterparts that one of its warships had recovered a corpse from the sea at 11.30 a.m.

By 4 p.m., the French vessel had recovered up to eight bodies, and the AFM requested it to carry out a standard complete search pattern to try and find other persons. In total, 21 bodies were picked up.

The French asked the AFM to take the bodies to Malta and the government "positively considered" this request. However, since the vessel was in Libyan rescue waters, the government asked the captain to seek assistance from Libya first. At 9 p.m., the captain informed the AFM that the ship would be steaming towards France.

The nationality or identity of the recovered bodies has not yet been established. It is also unclear whether the immigrants could have belonged to the boat of 57 Eritreans, which disappeared out of sight as the AFM sent out a rescue vessel.

Diplomatic wrangling and migrants' plights have sparked calls from EU officials to adopt common rules to clarify who is responsible for saving them at sea.

Last week, 27 shipwrecked Africans spent several hours clinging to a Maltese-owned tuna pen in the Mediterranean, until they were rescued by an Italian vessel and taken to Lampedusa.

Malta also refused to allow a Spanish tugboat to land another 26 immigrants and after several hours Spain decided to take them in. The immigrants reached Spain yesterday afternoon.

Both incidents took place in Libyan search and rescue waters, but the Libyan authorities refused to co-operate.

On Friday night, the army intercepted a boatload with 26 immigrants and escorted it to Cirkewwa.

The Government is clearly incensed with media reports, especially from Italy and Spain, which accuse Malta of not shouldering its responsibilities.

The government spokesman replied yesterday: "These claims are clearly a lie. We are not letting anybody die, as some of the media are implying. We act at once when there is a danger to loss of life.

"It's also clear that the international media is picking on a small country - they are not even contacting us to hear our version of events."