Malta has formally protested to Italy after the Italian government offered oil exploration licences around the islands of Pentelleria, Linosa and Lempedusa.

Malta considers part of the continental shelf to be its own, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg told Joe Mizzi (PL) in reply to a parliamentary question.

Oil exploration rights in the centre of the Mediterranean are beign hotly contested by Malta, Italy, Libya and Tunisia.

Last week, talks between Malta with Libya on contested offshore territorial claims werre likened to “a waltz, moving two steps forward and one step back” by the representative of a Canadian oil company.

In March 2008, Libya had written to Heritage Oil warning the company not to do any drilling in Area 7 (on the Medina Bank), which the North African state claimed as its own. Heritage Oil had not yet started operations in Area 7 and Area 2 (which lies to the north of the disputed zone) where it was given a licence by the Maltese government to explore.