Update 2: migrants brought to Malta

(Updates, adds new picture)

A group of 101 migrants was this evening transferred from an Italian Navy frigate to two Maltese patrol boats who are due to bring them ashore at about 9 p.m.

The frigate Vega rescued the migrants from a drifting boat earlier today at the southern limits of Malta's search and rescue region.

The migrants were picked up because of worsening weather conditions.

The AFM said the group consists of 87 men, 10 women and four children. They were located after phoning the Italian coastguard by satellite phone yesterday.

Another group of 28 migrants arrived in Malta on a boat this morning, landing near Wied iz-Zurrieq.

Meanwhile, an Italian Guardia di Finanza vessel this morning also intercepted another group of around 30 illegal migrants some 50 miles south of Lampedusa. They are to be landed on the Italian island.

Migration has topped the Maltese political agenda over the past few days. Labour leader Joseph Muscat this morning urged the Prime Minister not to sign the French-sponsored EU Immigration Pact, agreed last week between Justice and Home Affairs Ministers (see separate story). The Pact is due to be signed at an EU summit in mid October.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi Malta told the UN General Assembly on Friday that : "it is extremely difficult for us to continue to carry such a burden which is so acutely disproportionate to the size of the country and its population."

Arrivals this year have surged to a record of some 2,400 migrants who arrived on 78 boats. July was the busiest month with 23 migrants' boats carrying 794 migrants.