A stand-off between Italy and Malta over a group of rescued illegal migrants escalated into a full-blown political dispute yesterday as the two countries traded accusations of failure to live up to their international obligations.

The group of 154 migrants were rescued from two separate boats by a Turkish cargo ship near Lampedusa in an operation coordinated by the Armed Forces of Malta.

The Italian navy sent a vessel to make sure the ship did not enter territorial waters and demanded that the migrants be taken to Malta, which refused on the basis that the nearest safe port was Lampedusa.

Last night, the ship was stranded off Lampedusa after an Italian doctor was hoisted aboard to provide medical attention to some injured migrants.

Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni yesterday morning accused Malta of not shouldering its responsibilities on migration and instead dumping the migrants on Italy.

Using tough language, Mr Maroni said relations between Malta and Italy had taken a bad turn recently over this issue and that he had asked EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot to intervene and persuade Malta to assume its responsibilities.

But Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, who was speaking in an unrelated press conference yesterday, answered in kind saying that Italy's objections were unacceptable.

While he understood that Italy had its immigration problems to face, the Maltese government could not accept migrants found closer to Italian ports, he said.

"Italy cannot expect to solve its immigration problems by dumping them on Malta," Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

A few days ago, The Times reported that Frontex had postponed its planned anti-migration patrol mission in the Sicily-Malta-Libya strait due to the dispute.

Italy is insisting that all illegal migrants found during this mission should be taken to Malta even if they are closer to Lampedusa. Malta is insisting that, according to international rules, they should be taken to the nearest safe port of call.