Italy to demand action on migrant crisis at EU summit

A rescued migrant buries his face in his hands as he cries while waiting to undergo preliminary medical tests at Mater Dei Hospital in Tal-Qroqq, outside Valletta, October 12, 2013. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

ROME (Reuters) - Italy will seek an overhaul of European asylum policies and emergency action to handle a crisis that has seen tens of thousands of African migrants arrive in Sicily and hundreds of deaths, Prime Minister Enrico Letta said on Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of a European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday, Letta said chronic instability in Africa and the Middle East meant the disasters earlier this month, in which as many as 550 migrants drowned, would not be the last of their kind.