Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has cancelled a planned visit to Malta, his office said Friday, as opposition protests in Kiev showed no sign of abating.

"Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has made a decision to postpone an official visit to the Republic of Malta planned for next week due to a need to focus his attention on domestic issues," his office said. Yanukovych had been scheduled to visit Malta on Monday and Tuesday, a source in the presidential administration told Agence France Presse separately.

The Maltese military has rescued almost 13,400 migrants over the past 10 years, Interior Minister Manuel Mallia told parliament on Wednesday.

Mallia said the Armed Forces of Malta carried out 954 rescue operations over this period of time.

Malta and Greece called Monday for Europe to take decisive action on illegal immigration at summit talks this week, insisting EU states follow up on promises to share the "burden".

"Our borders are Europe's borders and human trafficking is knocking on our doors," Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said following a meeting with his Maltese counterpart, Joseph Muscat, in Malta on Monday.

A boatload of 254 Syrian and Egyptian migrants including 94 minors landed in Italy on Sunday after a perilous voyage through rough seas from Egypt that skirted Greece and Malta to reach Italy.

The migrants were rescued some 150 nautical miles southeast of Sicily and were transferred onto three coast guard patrol boats that arrived in the port of Syracuse in the early hours of Sunday.

A U.S. warship has rescued 128 migrants from an inflatable raft that was threatening to capsize in rough seas in the Mediterranean after a request from Malta, officials said Thursday.

The USS San Antonio, which is equipped with an amphibious transport dock that can help in rescue operations, was scrambled on Wednesday after a Maltese military aircraft spotted the dinghy.

Syrian refugees who survived after their boat capsized off Malta say they were fired on by warring trafficking gangs as they set out on their perilous journey from Libya, the U.N. refugee agency reported Sunday.

Thirty-one people were killed and more than 200 people were rescued after the boat capsized on Friday, a week after a shipwreck off Italy left at least 359 dead, prompting Malta to warn the Mediterranean was turning into "a cemetery."

Around 50 migrants, including a dozen children, died Friday when their boat sank between Malta and Sicily, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.

The agency said 150 of the boat's passengers were rescued by a Maltese ship and another 50 by the Italian navy, a week after a similar incident off the Italian island of Lampedusa killed more than 300 refugees.

Malta refused Tuesday to allow 102 migrants rescued from a leaking dinghy on to the island despite pressure from the European Commission to let them disembark on humanitarian grounds.

The migrants, including a four-month-old baby and four pregnant women, were rescued from their badly damaged inflatable boat on Monday by the Liberian-flagged Salamis oil tanker 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the Libyan coast.

Hundreds of migrants were intercepted by Italian, Libyan and Maltese border guards on Tuesday on several boats leaving from Libya, a day after Pope Francis called for more solidarity with the refugees.

Italy's coast guard said in a statement it had scrambled cargo vessels that were in the area to help out during the nighttime operation to rescue 303 migrants on three boats that were in difficulty.

Malta's navy recovered two bodies and rescued around 160 African migrants from two boats which got into trouble on the Mediterranean Sea, an armed forces spokesman said Thursday.

Two more migrants were missing after they fell overboard.