At least six African migrants were feared dead in a shipwreck off Sicily in southern Italy, local authorities said Monday.
The Italian navy ships participating in the search and rescue mission reportedly rescued 364 of the 370 asylum seekers after their boat capsized.
The authorities were still trying to find the missing people, according to RAI state television.
Almost 4,000 African migrants have been saved during the weekend by a government rescue operation called "Mare Nostrum"(Our Sea), which was launched last year as a temporary measure and is expected to be replaced by a permanent European mission, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Sunday.
About 20,000 African migrants have died at sea since the 1990s, and around 2,000 since the beginning of 2014, in their perilous crossing to Italy, which is seen as the easiest access to Europe.
On Saturday, the Italian navy recovered the bodies of 18 migrants off Lampedusa island, Italy's southernmost point, hours after Libya's coast guard confirmed that a boat carrying some 170 illegal immigrants had sunk off Tripoli