Updated: Migrants flooding into Lampedusa

Eleven boats carrying close to 850 immigrants, most of which Tunisian, arrived early today on the Italian island of Lampedusa, the coastguard told AFP.

The new arrivals joined around 100 migrants who had arrived by sea from restive Tunisia over the weekend despite poor weather and choppy seas across the narrow stretch of the Mediterranean.

Another boat with around 100 people aboard had been sighted this morning by customs police patrolling the Strait of Sicily by air.

Others are expected over the next 24 hours as immigrants take advantage of a brief respite in the bad weather. The next boats from Tunisia could have Libyan refugees aboard, the coastguard said.

Today's arrivals are being transferred to the island's reception centre, which has 850 beds but is already holding around 1,000 immigrants.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told Lampedusa's mayor Bernardino De Rubeis yesterday that airlifts to move immigrants to other centres on the mainland would resume on Monday.

A first plane with around 100 immigrants aboard left Lampedusa for Calabria in southern Italy on Monday morning, and 64 others were put on a ferry for Porto Empedocle in Sicily.

The exodus from Tunisia follows the popular revolt that ousted strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January and which sparked the uprising in Egypt that led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak last month.