ROME (AP) -- Italy says 18 ships, including cargo vessels, are taking part in the search for hundreds of migrants believed to have been on a boat that capsized off the Libyan coast.Â
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says officials are "not in a position to confirm" a survivor's report that 700 people were aboard the 66-foot boat. He says so far, 24 have been confirmed dead and 28 were rescued.
Renzi says the boat was headed to Malta.
It's the latest in a series of deadly accidents involving migrants headed for Europe to escape turmoil in Africa and the Middle East.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says 3,500 died last year while attempting to cross the Mediterranean and more than 900 are known to have died so far this year.
Britain's foreign secretary says he will bring up the issue of migrant trafficking at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers. Philip Hammond says he discussed some ideas with Group of Seven foreign ministers last week, and he plans to do so again with EU counterparts tomorrow in Luxembourg.
