Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni yesterday launched a scathing attack on Malta accusing the island of failing to respect international obligations and dumping immigrants on Italy.

"I have asked, and continue to ask, that Malta respect the commitments it decided to take on through international agreements, which they are currently not doing, thereby harming Italy," Mr Maroni said.

What started as a technical argument between Italy and Malta on the rules of engagement of the next Frontex patrols in the Mediterranean, yesterday became a fully-fledged political dispute between the two neighbouring countries on Africa's doorstep.

Addressing a conference on illegal immigration in Rome in the presence of representatives from the European Commission and Frontex, Mr Maroni, known for his outspokenness, accused Malta of shedding its Search and Rescue (SAR) responsibilities. He said he had called on the EU to intervene to make Malta shoulder its responsibilities.

Claiming that Malta often left it up to Italy to rescue boatloads of immigrants, even if they were in Maltese waters, Mr Maroni said that "relations with Malta are not all that good".

"I have called on (EU Justice) Commissioner Jacques Barrot to intervene because there is a clause which allows Malta to offload the rescue responsibilities that are its own. The areas of competence are well defined but often those who should come to the rescue do not," he said, pointing a finger at Malta.

"Last year, we intervened 80 times and we do so because human life must always be saved. However, I have brought the question to a European level because whoever commits to perform sea rescues should do so otherwise the rules must be changed."

Mr Maroni's outburst, which has been in the offing as various Italian media this week quoted sources from his ministry making the same accusations, was strongly rebutted by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.

"These accusations are totally unfounded. The Italians seem to be trying to shift their immigration problems onto us because we are small. First they couldn't control Lampedusa and created a pull-factor where all illegal immigrants arriving on the island are flown to mainland Italy and now they want to dump all illegal immigrants found near Lampedusa onto Malta," Dr Mifsud Bonnici argued.

On the accusation that Malta was not intervening in its SAR area, which was vast and covered international waters off Lampedusa, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Malta always offered its assistance in line with its international obligations.

"We have always maintained that illegal immigrants have to be taken to the nearest safe port and if this happened to be Lampedusa they would have to go there. We can't take everyone in. For the past 45 years Italy has always respected this position, even last year when Maroni was already in charge. It seems the Italians now want to change the rules."

On Mr Maroni's plea for the EU intervention Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Malta had no problem as the island was fully respecting its international obligations according to established procedures.

This escalation of events goes back to a recent dispute reported by The Times last week over this year's Frontex operation. This mission, which was planned to start last month, was postponed as Malta and Italy failed to agree on the rules of engagement to be used during the operation.

While Italy insisted all immigrants saved during this mission should be taken to Malta, even if the closest safe port was Lampedusa, Malta argued that according to international law rescued immigrants should be taken to the nearest safe port.

Frontex sources in Poland yesterday confirmed this issue led to an official postponement of Frontex patrols and more discussions among member states interested in taking migrants were scheduled to take place in "the coming days".

Although Frontex was officially keeping a low profile, refusing to answer any questions on the matter, The Times is informed that the agency sent letters to member states informing them of the issue.

In the letter addressed to 11 member states, Frontex an-nounced that air and maritime operations, which were scheduled to start on April 16 as part of the Nautilus 2009 operation, had been postponed due to the dispute between Italy and Malta.

The European Commission is also following the situation closely and a spokesman said: "The Commission encourages... participating member states to find a solution between them on the operational plan, including the question of disembarkation".

The Times was also informed that, at the eleventh hour, Mr Maroni cancelled a visit to Malta this week to hold talks on pending immigration issues.

Although the official reason is that Mr Maroni cannot travel due to a heavy workload, related to the recent earthquake in L'Aquila, observers believed this was a diplomatic snub. On Thursday, Mr Maroni had no problem travelling to Tunisia for talks with his counterpart.

Despite attempts since Wednesday to get a reaction from the Italian Home Affairs Ministry over this issue and his planned visit to Malta, no reply has been forthcoming. A spokesman yesterday informed The Times of Mr Maroni's speech about Malta minutes after it was made in Rome.