Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini this morning again hinted that Malta’s search and rescue area should be reduced, since its area was disproportionate to the country’s size.

“To give you a rough picture... Malta’s SAR is as large as Italy when Malta is the size of Rome,” Frattini said during a Rai’s Radio anch'io programme.

Replying, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici made it clear that Malta wouldn’t be giving up any of its SAR saying this was part of the country’s sovereignty.

“Italy doesn’t need our SAR, it has a large-enough area to watch over, unless there are ulterior motives,” Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

The Italian Foreign Minister said that this was the stand Malta has been taking for the past 10 years.

The latest spat between the two countries was sparked by the case of five Eritrean immigrants who were rescued off Lampedusa, claiming that 73 immigrants aboard their rubber dinghy had died in the journey.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici emphasised that the Armed Forces are well-equipped and well-prepared for such incidents also mentioning four new patrol boats equipped with the latest technology.

He clarified that two patrol boats guarded over the rubber dinghy as it continued on its way.

Asked whether Malta is holding a magisterial inquiry, Dr Mifsud Bonnici replied in the negative.

He said that “if the tragedy happened, it must have happened in Libya’s SAR”.

This prompted the radio programme’s host to ask whether Malta doubts the occurrence of the accident.

Replying in the affirmative, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that the reasons to doubt such incident were made public but the Italian media “decided not to quote them”.

He said that when the AFM intercepted the dinghy, this looked new and didn’t give the impression that other immigrants, apart from the five survivors, had ever been on board.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici also mentioned the possibility that there could have been another ‘separate’ accident which was somehow linked to this issue.

Franco Frattini said that Italy and Malta should turn to the EU and demand that it takes action.

He said that there were certain member states that did not border on to the Mediterranean that did not understand the extent of the problem. Redistribution of illegal immigrants among all member states was the solution to the problem, Mr Frattini concluded.

The government's position about Malta's SAR area is being supported by the Opposition. PL leader Joseph Muscat told The Times today that Malta should not give in to pressure being exerted by Italy.