Italy calls for boat inquiry

ITALY has called upon Nato to investigate reports that an alliance warship failed to go to the rescue of a boat stranded off Libya for nearly a week when as many as 100 migrants on board may have died from hunger.

Foreign minister Franco Frattini made the request for a formal inquiry and said he also instructed Italy's Nato ambassador to ask the alliance to consider the care of civilians fleeing Libya as part of the UN resolution that allows military action to protect civilians in Libya itself.

Some 24,000 migrants have reached Italy by sea since bombing began in Libya in March.