Lampedusa, Italy  - More than 300 would-be migrants landed Thursday on the Italian islet of Lampedusa when three vessels carrying them were escorted to shore by authorities.

The first and largest group - 239 people including 45 women and two children - arrived at dawn after their vessel was intercepted by a Italian coastguard patrol, officials said.

Authorities are planning to transfer the migrants to a reception centre in Porto Empedocle in Sicily.

According to Italian government figures, a total of 36,900 would- be immigrants arrived in Italy by sea in 2008, a 75-per-cent increase over the previous year. Of these some
31,000 landed on Lampedusa, an islet situated south of Sicily.

Italian officials say they hope to see a decrease in such hazardous sea-journeys in May when an agreement between Rome and Tripoli involving stepped up patrols of Libya's coastline, comes into effect.

Earlier in April, over 230 would-be immigrants are feared to have drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya.(dpa)