More than two hours of tête-à-tête discussions in Brussels yesterday night between the interior ministers of Malta and Italy did not bring to a close the recent spat between the two neighbouring countries following last week's Pinar E incident. Instead, both Malta and Italy stuck to their guns with no solution in sight on what shall happen if a similar incident occurs in the coming days.

During the talks, Malta's Interior Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bioinnici held to his bold stance refusing to discuss any concessions to Italy of Malta's Search and Rescue Region and reiterating the island's stand that illegal immigrants found in Malta's SAR have to be hosted by the closest safe port as per international law. At the same time Minister Mifsud Bonnici turned his guns onto the EU stating that Malta now expects to get concrete help from the Commission and the other EU member states even through "a compulsory burden sharing system".

"We have to stop hearing more words and rhetoric turn to action," he told a press conference in Brussels a few minutes before midnight in the presence of EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot and his Italian counterpart Roberto Maroni.

Minister Maroni also asked the Commission to come up with a concrete proposal in the coming weeks to make the other EU member states carry their part of the brunt of this problem.

At the same time, Minister Maroni said that the differences with Malta on the interpretation of international law rests, although he expressed hope that the EU acts fast so that similar incidents to the Pinar E will be settled through European action.