Valletta  - Malta has refused to take in 154 would-be illegal immigrants shortly after Italy also denied them permission to land in Lampedusa, officials said Friday.

The immigrants had been picked up by a Turkish cargo ship just over 40 nautical miles off Lampedusa.

Malta is insisting that in terms of international conventions, the immigrants were to be brought to the nearest safe port, which in this case was Lampedusa.

But Italian officials are insisting the immigrants should be brought to Malta, which is responsible for the search and rescue region.

No details have been given about the condition of those rescued.

In a similar case on March 16, Malta had refused entry to an Italian ship which had also rescued immigrants 40 miles off Lampedusa. They were later taken to Italy.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni accused Malta on Friday of shirking its responsibilities on migration and of dumping the immigrants on Italy.

Speaking during a conference in Rome, Maroni said that relations between Malta and Italy had taken a turn for the worse recently over this issue, adding that he has asked EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot to intervene and convince Malta to assume its responsibilities.

But Maltese Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici described Italy's objections as unacceptable and said the Maltese government could not accept immigrants found closer to Italian ports.

Mifsud Bonnici said that for the past 45 years Italy has been abiding by an arrangement that immigrants saved at sea were to be taken by the closest port of call.

"Italy cannot expect to solve its immigration problems by dumping them on Malta. Maroni is evidently not being informed about what's going on. We are appealing for reason," Mifsud Bonnici told the German Press-Agency dpa.

The Times of Malta revealed that the EU's border patrol agency Frontex has postponed its planned anti-migration patrol mission in the Sicily-Malta-Libya strait due to the dispute between the two neighbouring countries. (dpa)