Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Tuesday that laws on assisting illegal immigrants ''must be respected'' after Italy was forced to rescue seaborne migrants that Malta refused.
Around 140 Africans were left stranded on a Turkish freighter which had rescued them from the sea as both Italy and Malta denied it was their responsibility to receive the migrants.
After a four-day stand-off in which the European Commission sided with Italy, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi gave the go-ahead to pick up the ailing migrants from the freighter, the Pinar.
''I'm proud of the decision taken by Italy to save lives, but the rules must be respected'', said Frattini on Tuesday, adding that ''European laws were not upheld''.
''Italy's intervention was dictated by humanitarian reasons, but it's clear that it was Malta's responsibility to help a ship found in Maltese waters,'' he said.
''It's not okay for this to create a precedent that wherever a ship is found, it's Italy's responsibility to help it,'' he said.
Italy on Tuesday presented a dossier on the affair to European Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot which Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has said would show ''clearly'' it should have been Malta's duty to rescue the Africans found drifting in its waters Thursday.
The dossier also called for further funds for the surveillance of European Union frontiers, greater support from European partners and a clear definition of responsabilities for intervention in international waters.
Malta immediately rejected the accusations presented in Italy's dossier, claiming the the European Commission had in fact sided with it rather than Italy.
''We did our duty, we coordinated the rescue operation and directed the ship to pick up the immigrants who were a few miles off (the southern Italian island of) Lampedusa,'' said Maltese Interior Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.
While Malta admits that the Pinar had actually been in Maltese waters, it claims international law dictated it should head for the nearest port, which was ''clearly'' Lampedusa.
''Who is irresponsible here? Us, who (arranged) the rescue, or those who left them on the ship a few miles from their coast?'' he asked. Barrot meanwhile called for a meeting with the interior ministers of both countries on Thursday.
After Italy agreed to intervene, some 20 of the weakest migrants including two pregnant women were rushed to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa Sunday night and the rest came off two Italian Navy ships at Porto Empedocle near Agrigento in Sicily Monday morning.
Some of the migrants said they had only drunk sea water for the last two days, while the corpse of a pregnant woman had been lying in the boat since the rescue.
Both Malta and Italy bear the brunt of immigrants leaving the North African coast for Europe.
According to the Italian interior ministry, around 37,000 people landed on Italian coasts in 2008 - a 75% increase on 2007.
Mifsud Bonnici said 3,800 immigrants landed in Malta last year, adding that ''3,800 on a tiny island like Malta is the equivalent of 400,000 arriving in Italy''.
