A newborn baby girl was among the first group of 68 migrants to arrive this year and the second since the fall of the Gaddafi regime in November.

The group was brought ashore by the Armed Forces of Malta in two lots after having been saved from the high seas and from their 40-foot long white rubber dinghy.

The baby was born on a patrol boat during the operation to rescue the migrants about 56 miles south-west of Malta on Saturday night.

Alarm was raised by a foreigner, resident in Malta

The child and her mother, believed to be a Somali, are recovering at Mater Dei Hospital.

Another woman claimed she miscarried during the trip on the dinghy, which the migrants said started three days ago from Tunisia. However, sources said they believed the trip actually started from Libya.

The two women together with 23 others picked up by the patrol boat were brought to Malta early yesterday morning. Some of them needed medical attention.

Another 43 migrants who formed part of the same group were picked up by the Italian cargo ship Verona and were landed at Malta Freeport in the afternoon.

The search for the migrants started on Friday when the alarm was raised by a foreigner resident in Malta.

A Maltese patrol boat, an AFM aircraft and a PC-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft of the US Air Force based at Sigonella were deployed for the search operation.

On December 6, a boatload of 44 migrants from Somalia landed in Malta after having been rescued in rough seas. They claimed two fellow migrants had perished during the voyage.

Before that, a group of 76 had arrived in June. They were rescued after encountering difficulties as they fled from Misurata.