Malta will be keeping a keen eye on the joint Italy-Libya patrols meant to start this week in Libya's territorial waters, in the hope that the operation will drastically reduce the number of illegal immigrants reaching the island.
"We are currently in contact with Libya and Italy to see how this accord will be implemented on the ground," a government spokesman told The Times.
"However, although we welcome the latest developments, we would prefer to wait and see the results before commenting further."
Italy and Libya last week signed the implementation protocol of a collaboration agreement to combat illegal immigration that had originally been agreed upon in December 2007.
The signing took place during Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni's visit to Tripoli. It followed the ratification by the Italian Senate of the Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation Treaty between the two countries. According to this treaty, Italy will give Libya millions of dollars in aid while Libya will allow the Italian military to join its naval force and monitor its coasts against illegal immigration.
Almost all the illegal immigrants arriving in Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa leave from Libyan ports. The joint patrols will be aimed at stopping and turning back human traffickers departing on boats with hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans on board.
The operation is expected to concentrate on the ports of Zuwarah, Zaniyah and Miswatah where most of the illegal human trafficking is believed to originate.
The deal includes setting up, at Italy's expense, a command centre in Tripoli using the most advanced satellite and radar systems to monitor all maritime movements between Libya and Sicily. The centre will be manned by Italian and Libyan personnel.
Mixed teams of Italian and Libyan officials will form the crews of six Italian patrol boats to be handed over to the Libyan authorities.
According to Mr Maroni, the implementation of the accord is expected to start this week. He is hoping that illegal migration will start to decline by Easter and stop by the end of summer.
Mr Maroni plans to return to Libya to verify the other point of the implementation protocol, which tackles the monitoring of Libya's southern borders.
Finmeccanica, an Italian defence and security industrial group, will take care of the monitoring, which would be aimed at reducing the number of illegal immigrants entering Libya from its southern borders.
To date, Libya has always refused to take part in the EU's anti-migration patrol missions in the Mediterranean, conducted by border agency Frontex in the Sicily-Malta-Libya strait.
Libya did not even grant permission to the member states taking part in these missions, including Malta and Italy, to enter its sea and air space on search and rescue missions.
Sources close to both the Italian and Maltese authorities have expressed caution on the new accord, as "agreements with Libya normally take time to materialise in full".