Maltese rescue teams and NATO warships have called off a search for a boat in difficulty with about 100 people aboard, possibly illegal migrants, officials say.
Search operations were halted because of very rough weather in the central Mediterranean and "the lack of possibility of survival," a spokesman for the rescue coordination centre in Malta said.
The alarm was raised on Thursday night after somebody in the 13-metre boat with 96 people on board contacted a third party in Italy using a satellite phone, said the Rescue Coordination Centre of the Maltese Armed Forces.
The vessel was reported to be at the time some 100 nautical miles southwest of Malta. The spokesman could not confirm that the boat was ferrying illegal migrants to Europe.
He said four NATO warships -- from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States - and two aircraft, from Italy and the United States, had taken part in the search.
Illegal migrants pass near Malta on their way across the Mediterranean from North Africa to Italy. Scores have died in recent years when overcrowded boats capsized or sank.