Valletta - Responsibilities of the EU's border patrol agency should be widened to include repatriation of immigrants who fail to qualify for refugee and humanitarian protection, according to proposals made Italy and Malta that were disclosed Friday.

Frontex should be roped in to get such immigrants the necessary documentation for repatriation, the Maltese and Italian governments said following a conciliatory meeting in Brussels.

Valletta, Malta - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said Tuesday that he had urged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to make a balanced and constructive contribution to a racism conference, at which the Iranian leader triggered a walkout.

Valletta, Malta - Some 150 would-be illegal immigrants remained in a watery limbo off the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday as Italy and Malta traded accusations of failure to live up to their international obligations.

The group of African immigrants was rescued from two separate boats by a Turkish cargo ship near Lampedusa on Thursday in an operation coordinated by the Armed Forces of Malta.

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.

Valletta - A 60-year-old lawyer was voted in as Malta's next president Wednesday, amid rare consensus in the politically-divided island.

George Abela was unanimously voted in by parliament as Malta's eighth president, and the first ever from an opposition party.

A former deputy leader of the Labour Party, last year Abela contested the top post for a party trailing from three successive electoral defeats.

Valletta, Malta - International relief agency Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) on Friday said it had suspended its work at migrant detention centres in Malta, to protest the "unhygienic, inhuman and alarming" conditions there.

MSF's announcement came just hours ahead of the European Union's top justice official Jacques Barrot's visit to review conditions faced by would-be immigrants on the Mediterranean island.