The Albanian and Italian prime ministers have held talks on regional problems, including illegal immigration, in the southern Italian port of Bari.

Afterwards the Italian Prime Minister, Massimo D'Alema, said Italy would not fight immigrants arriving in despair or hope; but it would fight those who, he said, ferried them for payment and tried to force women into prostitution or children into the drugs trade.

Mr D'Alema also said Italy wanted to organise a conference on security in the Adriatic and Ionian seas to combat what he called the ferocious criminality in the region.