Malta tells Mediterranean nations to save migrants

VALLETTA, June 2 (Reuters) Malta told other Mediterranean countries, including Libya, today they had a duty to save African migrants spotted in their search and rescue areas.

Malta refused to take in 26 migrants on Monday after they were picked up by a Spanish tug-boat in rough seas. Valletta insisted the North Africans were picked up well inside the Libyan search and rescue area.

''All countries around this table have a duty to save lives at sea in the search and rescue zone for which they are responsible,'' Maltese Foreign Minister Michael Frendo said.

Frendo was speaking in Crete at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Mediterranean Forum attended by Greece, Algeria, Egypt, Italy, Malta, France, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and, as a guest, Libya.

Yesterday a French navy ship found around 20 bodies floating off Malta. Last week 27 shipwrecked Africans spent three days clinging to tuna nets in the Mediterranean while Malta and Libya argued over who should rescue them.

Malta insists it is not obliged under international law to take in migrants if they are picked up in the Libyan zone.

Yesterday, Maltese Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg told Maltese newspaper The Times his island was doing all it could.

''We are adhering by all our obligations but no one can expect us to also assume responsibility for a search and rescue area that is not ours,'' he said.

Asked whether he was referring to Libya, Borg said ''the only thing that is coming from Libya is perfect silence.'' Hundreds of would-be migrants are feared to have drowned after trying to cross in rickety boats to find work in Europe.

REUTERS ABM RK2200