Updated - raises the number of dead to 10 - Some 70 migrants were plucked from the sea off Libya by Italian forces late yesterday after their sinking dinghy was located by an AFM patrol aircraft.

Italian news agency Ansa reported that somebody on the boat sent a distress call using a satellite phone. The rubber dinghy, which was taking in water, was located 35 miles off Libya by an AFM aircraft.

Italian coast guard units rescued 62 men and eight women, one of whom was pregnant. Ten migrants, including three women, drowned and their bodies were also pulled out of the water.

Survivors and the corpses were taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

As in a similar case a few weeks ago, the Libyan rescue authorities did not intervene.

The AFM said it was also involved in the coordination of the rescue. The Maltese aircraft established contact with a merchant vessel (M/V Seyma) which was in the area and directed the ship to alter its course towards the migrants' vessel to provide assistance.

"The King Air assumed a pivotal role during this operation as it relayed messages between the M/V Seyma and Italian Coast Guard patrol boats which were ordered to steam to the area by the Italian Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Rome. Two Italian Coast Guard Patrol Boats and one Italian Navy warship, the Foscari,  started the rescue operation at 8.30 p.m.