About 800 illegal immigrants landed in southern Italy yesterday, with emergency services warning that already crowded holding centres are near collapse in a country that has declared an immigration emergency.

Early yesterday about 400 immigrants on a 17-metre boat, which was listing dangerously, were guided by Italian coastguard officers into the port of Lampedusa, a small island south of the Italian mainland.

Four smaller boats were later intercepted at sea off the island and 400 more immigrants were brought into port by coastguards.

Most of the arrivals, who included women and children, appeared to be of African origin. Many were not wearing shoes as they had been told to remove them on boarding the boats before departure, most probably on the Libyan coast.

The local holding centre in Lampedusa is already housing some 700 illegal immigrants who arrived in the last few days and is close to its capacity of 1,500 people.

Italy's centre-right government is cracking down on illegal immigration, with tough new laws aimed at making it easier to expel them and imposing tougher sentences on those committing crimes. Last Friday it declared a state of emergency over the influx of immigrants arriving on Italy's long shoreline.