Valletta, Malta  - The German Minister of State for Europe, Gunter Closer, has pledged his country's support to Malta on the problem of illegal immigration at bilateral and European Union levels, the Maltese government said Tuesday.

"The smallest EU member state cannot be left on its own when facing such considerable challenges," the Maltese Home Affairs Ministry quoted the German minister as saying during a meeting he had with minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.

The ministry said the German minister had recognised he was now in a better position to truly appreciate the scale of Malta's problem with illegal immigration.

The burden-sharing mechanism in the new EU Immigration Pact, hammed out in Brussels last week, dominated the meeting between the two ministers.

Information given to Maltese Parliament Monday shows that Malta granted protection status to 1,100 migrants this year, double the figure of 2007. More than 2,300 would-be illegal immigrants landed on the tiny Mediterranean island this year, a 35 per cent increase over last year's arrivals. (dpa)