At least 21 Albanians died when a rubber dinghy heading for Italy and packed with at least 32 people thought to be illegal migrants capsized off the Albanian coast.
Italian coastguard control said the overloaded dinghy turned over close to the island of Saseno, between Albania and Greece, and that survivors had been taken to Albanian ports.
"Eighteen males and three females were found dead," Mr Ivano Baschieri, the commander of the Italian naval group on mission to Albania, told the ATA news agency.
The bodies were handed over to Albanian authorities at Sazan, the base of Italian coastguards. "Among the dead there may well have been two babies. We do not know exactly yet, because the terrible conditions meant we could not go on board the boat," he said.
"The bodies were all piled up, one on top of the other, and the coastguards could not count them."
The dinghy left Albania yesterday in high seas. Italian, Greek and Albanian coastguards responded to an SOS call made to an Albanian television station by mobile phone, but took 12 hours to find the dinghy because of the stormy weather.
Coastguards said they were still searching for other survivors who may have fallen overboard and to discover whether there is a second craft.
Illegal immigration to Italy has risen in recent months, most migrants coming from poor north and central African countries and eastern Europe.