ROME: Over 200 migrants attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean were feared to have drowned on Wednesday after their overcrowded boat capsized off Libya.

The fishing boat, believed to have been carrying over 600 migrants including women and children, ran into difnculty about 15 nautical miles off Libya and sent out a distress call, which was picked up by the coastguard in Sicily.

Two vessels the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) ship Dignity One and Irish patrol vessel LE Niamh were immediately dispatched to the scene, but the stricken boat capsized after the migrants moved to one side in the hope of being rescued, the coastguard said.

Coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini said around 400 people had been rescued from the water while 25 bodies had been recovered.

`The boat overturned and sanl< quickly because it was made of metal,` Federico Fossi, spokesman in Italy for the UNHCR, said.

The agency`s chief spokeswoman MelissaFleming said on Twitter that `100 (migrants) were in the hull` of the fishing vessel when it capsized.

Seven ships and two helicopters were helping search for survivors.

More than 2,000 people have already died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.

Wednesday`s disaster could be the worst since 800 migrants were feared drowned off Libya in April.

Ireland`s Defence Minister Simon Coveney confirmed that the LE Niamh was diverted to the scene at 7am and warned `the loss of life is likely to be significant` `The crew of the Niamh are working flat out with their counterparts to rescue as many as possible,` he said in a statement.

The latest shipwreck was set to shift the focus in the immigration debate back to the struggles of those fleeing war zones, after weeks of complaints from France and Britain over the disruption caused by asylum seekers at the Channel Tunnel.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said that EU governments had a duty to help the flood of migrants arriving in Europe and not cave in to `populist` demands to turn them back.

He said he was disappointed that EU ministers had failed late last month to agree on how to distribute a total of 40,000 mostly Syrian and Eritrean migrants from overstretched Italy and Greece.-AFP