Italy Calls on U.N. Refugee Agency to Help Libya with Refugees

Italy called Friday for the U.N.'s refugee agency to help the newly elected Libyan government deal with the huge flow of immigrants and asylum seekers setting off from its coasts for Europe.

"We have a record number of women, men and children arriving, 96 percent of the time from Libya," Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said in a press conference in Rome, just hours after another 800 boat migrants were rescued and taken to safety in southern Italy.

The number of arrivals this year has now topped the record 63,000 set in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprisings and Italy has been hit by several boat tragedies, with at least 125 people dying during crossings this week alone.

"Our aim is to help the Libyan authorities allow the UNHCR to manage the flow of men and women (in Libya), and identify which of them are asylum seekers," Renzi said after talks with European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso.

"The Mediterranean is not Italy's sea but the border to Europe, or rather the heart of Europe," he said, calling for more investment in the EU border agency Frontex and greater collaboration from other countries in the bloc.

"It is not possible in 2014 to allow a boat full of children to sink," he said.

Barroso applauded Italy for it's "Mare Nostrum" ("Our Sea") navy rescue operation, adding that the European Commission "has been asking for a long time for a more cooperative approach. The problems are not just for Italy, Greece, Malta or Spain."

"We need a better pooling of the resources of our member states, which could help not just in terms of the Mediterranean, but also in terms of refugees in need of European hospitality," he said.