War on human traffickers: Italian PM

Rome: Amid a tragic surge in the number of migrants losing their lives in the Mediterranean, Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday declared war on the human traffickers organising the perilous boat journeys.

"We need to be aware that we are fighting a war against human traffickers," Renzi told the Italian Senate or upper house of Parliament.

"There is no similar experience in history to the trading of human meat apart from slavery."

His comments came as European Union (EU) leaders were due to hold a summit on Mediterranean migrant crisis following Sunday's boat disaster in which as many as 950 people are feared to have drowned when their boat capsized and sank off the Libyan coast.

It was one of the worst maritime disasters since World War II and many of the victims, including women and children, were locked inside the hull and the middle deck of the 20-metre boat "like rats in a cage", according to one of the 28 survivors of the tragedy. The boat's Tunisian skipper and another crew member were arrested on charges of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and people smuggling =when they reached Sicily aboard a coast guard vessel.

In an earlier address to Italy's lower house of parliament, Renzi said he was optimistic that the EU would do more to tackle the Mediterranean migrant crisis in the wake of Sunday's disaster.

"We need a political strategy, which means asking Europe to do more than just agree on a budget," Renzi said.