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

According to the Maltese army, the migrants used a satellite phone to alert a rescue centre in Italy that their dinghy was adrift and that they had lost their outboard engine. The incident took place 88 nautical miles south of the Mediterranean island.

The migrants - 30 men and 13 women - were later picked up by a patrol boat and are in good health, officials said.

Around 1,300 Somalis fleeing the conflict-ridden nation in the Horn of Africa have landed in Malta this year. That compares with 613 in 2007, 311 in 2006 and 146 in 2005.

Malta is overburdened with fleeing African immigrants. Over 11,000 have reached the island since 2001, according to government statistics, meaning they make up nearly 3 per cent of the island's population.

The European Union's Immigration and Asylum Pact, signed in Brussels last week, underlines the need for burden sharing among the bloc's member nations. It was warmly welcomed by the Maltese government, though the island's citizens remain sceptical as to its effectiveness. dpa