One Liberian immigrant lost a brother and friends

Strong winds and choppy waters impeded the search, although local fishermen stopped work on Saturday to offer their services to the coast guards and navy.

The navy itself has been accused of failing to come to the rescue of the vessel, which was being towed to land by a fishing boat when it capsized.

The boat's captain, Vito Deodato, had appealed for aid when he spotted the immigrants in difficulty and the navy sent out a helicopter and a vessel, the Cassiopea.

"We asked them, by radio, to take the boat in tow because it would be safer that way," said Captain Deodato.

Captain Diodato was visibly distraught

"But they refused, saying everything was going fine."

Strong winds and huge waves caused the immigrants' small boat to turn over and sink within minutes after it was attached to Captain Diodato's larger fishing vessel.

The Italian Defence Ministry has rejected accusations that the Cassiopea did not do enough to help the immigrants as "presumptuous".

Meanwhile, the Public Prosecutor's Office in Agrigento has opened an investigation into "involuntary shipwreck, involuntary murder and illegal immigration", Italian radio said.

4,000 dollars

Nine people managed to scramble aboard Captain Deodato's boat, while another two survivors were picked up by the navy.

The survivors said they had left Turkey a week earlier after each paying $4,000 for the crossing, the Associated Press news agency reported.

They said they were from Nigeria, Sudan, Liberia and Turkey.

On report quotes the survivors as saying there were 80 people aboard the boat, mostly women and children.

Every month, hundreds of illegal immigrants try to enter Europe through Italy and over 77,000 people have been caught trying to enter illegally by sea in the past decade.

Italy fixes an annual quota for immigrants to make up shortfalls in the country's workforce.

The country has one of the lowest numbers of legal immigrants in Europe, at 2.5% of the population.