Borg in talks with Italian foreign minister tomorrow

Foreign Minister Tonio Borg will have talks in Luxembourg with his counterpart Franco Frattini tomorrow as a row rages between the two countries on the handling of illegal immigrants.

The Prime Minister yesterday criticised Italy for having failed to allow a Maltese patrol boat to disembark, at Lampedusa, 171 illegal migrants rescued some 32 miles from the Italian island.

The Italian Junior Minister responsible for energy, Stefano Saglio threatened that Italy could drop the underwater electricity interconnector project between the two countries over what he described as lack of cooperation by Malta on the migration issue.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Italian Home Affairs Minister Roborto Maroni - who last week blamed Malta for the drowning of some 200 migrants off Lampedusa - are today both attending an EU ministerial meeting where migration is being discussed.

Malta rejected blame for the loss of the migrants, pointing out that the incident happened after the migrants' boat was intercepted by Italian vessels and it was closer to Lampedusa than Malta.

Meanwhile, there were violent protests in Lampedusa this morning as Italy started repatriating migrants back to Tunisia, from where they had come, rather than taking them to mainland Italy.