Hundreds of refugees fleeing Libya landed in Italy on two boats today, said coast guard officials on the island of Lampedusa where thousands have arrived from the North African state in recent weeks.

There were 655 people on one boat including 82 women and 21 children, while the second carried 187 people including 19 women and one child.

Television images showed a rusty, overcrowded fishing boat arriving in Lampedusa, which has also seen tens of thousands of migrants arriving since Tunisia's revolution in January sparked off unrest across the region.

The refugees from Libya are mostly migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa.

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