Valletta, Malta - Five bodies recovered at sea in just over two weeks off Malta remained unidentified Sunday, though police were almost certain they were African immigrants who failed to make it to Europe.

The bodies were all in an advanced state of decomposition, indicating that they had been in the water for some time, police said.

Though the gender of the bodies was confirmed in an autopsy, it was very difficult to establish ethnicity.

The Sunday Times of Malta reported police as saying that it was "99 per cent probable that they were all (would-be illegal) immigrants." The autopsy established they had drowned.

Three of the corpses were female and one of them was wearing a life jacket.

Valletta, Malta - A group of 67 would-be immigrants arrived in Malta Thursday after their vessel was rescued in rough seas by a Russian bulk carrier the day before.

A woman in labour, and her four-year-old son, who had formed part of the group, had to be airlifted to Malta's hospital on Wednesday, the Maltese army said.

Valletta, Malta - There is a 20-per-cent chance of finding a commercially feasible oil and gas reserve off the coast of Malta, according to government estimates.

The prospects of two new offshore sites have been described as "more exciting," due to the fact that their geological features are similar to the oil-rich area near Libya. Wells will be sunk between 2010 and 2011.

The Times of Malta reported Monday that international oil companies licensed to conduct oil exploration around the Mediterranean island have spoken about the possibility of striking huge reserves. The Oil Exploration Department of the Maltese Resources Ministry has referred to reserves of "giant" proportions.

Valletta, Malta - A group of 43 Somali would-be immigrants was rescued Monday off Malta, authorities on the Mediterranean island said.

Brussels - Tiny Malta obtained a symbolic victory Thursday as European Union leaders acknowledged that the burden of asylum- seekers entering the bloc should be shared out among member states.

At a summit in Brussels, EU heads of state and government formally approved a European Pact on Immigration and Asylum.

The pact seeks to improve the management of legal migration into the EU, tighten controls on illegal immigrants and construct a common asylum policy.

Under pressure from Malta, whose geographical location in the southern Mediterranean Sea regularly exposes it to a massive influx of migrants from North Africa, leaders agreed to share out the country's burden, if only in principle.