The Italian Prime Minister, Massimo D'Alema, and his Albanian counterpart, Pandeli Majko, have signed an agreement to increase co-operation in the fight against illegal immigration.

Under the deal, Italian police will offer advice and assistance to the Albanian authorities in their attempts to target what Mr D'Alema described as a monstrous and unacceptable form of organised crime.

In a separate development, more than thirty illegal immigrants have been rescued by Italian coastguards.

They were abandoned by smugglers on a disused oil platform in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Ancona.

One report says the immigrants were Turkish Kurds.