All 27 European Commissioners will this morning discuss a set of new concrete proposals aimed at helping Malta and Italy face the immigration problem.

Sources close to the Commission said last night the "extraordinary meeting" of the College of Commissioners was arranged over the past days on the personal initiative of President Josè Manuel Barroso following promises he made to Malta and Italy recently. The sources said the meeting would focus exclusively on illegal migration in the Mediterranean and proposals made by Malta and Italy would be discussed and decided upon.

According to the sources, Brussels will propose working with Tripoli and the UN refugee agency UNHCR to set up an asylum vetting centre in Libya and will also take up Malta's proposal to set up a mechanism to redistribute among other European countries immigrants granted international protection. The news comes as Libya was called upon to meet Italy and Malta on illegal immigration next month in Rome.

The invitation was extended by Foreign Minister Tonio Borg and his Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini following talks on illegal immigration in Rome.

Malta backed Italy's policy to repatriate to Libya migrants rescued in international waters, Dr Borg said.

The two ministers congratulated Libya for working on solutions to this human tragedy over the past few weeks.

The tone of voice used now by both foreign ministers come in stark contrast to that of a couple of weeks ago when Malta and Italy were locked in a bitter dispute over which country was responsible to take in illegal immigrants rescued at sea.

The diplomatic spat saw Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi expressing his "disgust" at the Italians' refusal to rescue people out at sea, which was countered by an equally strong reaction by Mr Frattini, who accused Malta of reneging on its legal obligations.

The incident started when a cargo ship had been refused entry into Lampedusa after rescuing about 140 migrants off the coast of Lampedusa.

The Times is also informed that immigration will feature at next month's EU summit to be held in Brussels. After initially saying he did not see the need for the special immigration summit suggested by Italy, Mr Barroso decided to call upon the Czech presidency to include immigration on the agenda of the June EU leaders' meeting. The presidency accepted Mr Barroso's suggestion.