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Italy Begs For EU Help After Migrant Tragedy

European Union foreign ministers are to meet in Luxembourg to discuss the growing crisis of refugee deaths in the Mediterranean after hundreds were feared to have been killed when a smuggler's boat sank off Libya.

Officials say at least 700 people are feared dead after the boat capsized and sank, but Italian prosecutors, citing a survivor, say as many as 950 migrants could have been on board.

The Bangladeshi survivor told Italian authorities that hundreds of people had been locked in the hold of the vessel by the smugglers.

Only 28 people have been pulled from the Mediterranean alive, while 24 bodies were also recovered.

General Antonino Iraso from the Italian Border Police said the sea in the area is too deep for divers, suggesting the final death toll may never be known.

The tragedy takes the number of people killed among those seeking refuge in Europe to more than 1,500 this year alone.

The death toll has led to demands for a more coordinated European response to what Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has described as a "plague in our continent" .

International aid groups and Italian authorities have criticised Europe's so-called "Triton" border protection operation as inadequate.

It has a much smaller budget and narrower remit than the more comprehensive Italian search-and-rescue mission it replaced.

The "Mare Nostrum" or "Our Sea" operation was cancelled last year due to the cost.

Italy scaled back the mission after it was unable to persuade European partners, including Britain, to help meet its operating costs of €9m (£6.5m) per month amid claims that such operations would encourage migrants to risk the journey.

Britain's Foreign Minister Philip Hammond will join his European counterparts in Luxembourg later today where leaders are expected to discuss the issue of people smugglers.

Responding to the latest tragedy, Mr Hammond said he was horrified by the death toll and the "vile trade" of smuggling.

He added that stopping the smuggling trade "demands a comprehensive, coordinated response" which targets traffickers.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said: "... it was our moral duty to concentrate our responsibility as Europeans to prevent these kind of tragedies from happening again and again.

"We must build a common sense of European responsibility... knowing that there is no easy solution, no magic solution."

Carlotta Sami, from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said: "It seems we are looking at the worst massacre ever seen in the Mediterranean."

A major search and rescue operation was launched by air and sea after the vessel went down about 120 miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday.

It is believed the vessel overturned when migrants moved to one side of the boat in a bid to get off and be rescued by an approaching merchant ship.