talian rescuers have found 18 bodies on a boat carrying hundreds of asylum-seekers and another died while being evacuated, the ANSA news agency reports.

All were apparently killed by toxic fumes from the boat's engine.

The boat, with 600 people on board, was intercepted on Saturday south of the island of Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost point and a major landing point for migrant Mediterranean crossings from Libya as it is closer to Africa than mainland Italy.

Two more people have been evacuated by helicopter from the boat and been taken to Palermo hospital in Sicily in a serious condition, the report said.