Divers in Italy recovered 16 more bodies Sunday after a shipwreck in which more than 300 African refugees are feared to have died, as a government minister called for an easing of immigration rules.

   Officials said the death toll now stands at 127, as divers resumed an operation suspended since Friday because of rough seas off the island of Lampedusa where Thursday's tragedy unfolded.

   Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge was on the dock of the remote outcrop as corpses were being unloaded, after calling for an easing of Italy's tough rules against illegal immigration.

   "The law on immigration cannot be punitive," Kyenge, who has faced a torrent of racist abuse as Italy's first black minister, said earlier.

   The current law considers all irregular migrants suspects in the crime of "clandestinity" and punishes anyone accused of facilitating landings.

   "The migratory flux has fundamentally changed. We have to understand it and change our laws," she said, adding that she was planning to triple the available accommodation in asylum centres to 24,000 bed spaces because of the growing influx.

   Prime Minister Enrico Letta meanwhile said EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso will visit the island on Wednesday and blamed Libya for the growing influx of asylum seekers in Italy.

   In an interview with news channel SkyTG24, Letta said Libya -- where the shipwreck boat departed from -- should adopt "stringent" measures to stop the migrant boats from leaving its shores.

   "Our problem today is called Libya," he said.

   Letta also called for more European assistance to cope with the influx, saying: "Italy cannot be the first country to have everything on its shoulders."

   Italy has requested that the refugee issue be put on the agenda of a meeting of European interior ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday and of a summit of EU leaders at the end of the month.

   Local authorities on Lampedusa struggled to cope with the new arrivals. The refugee centre has 250 places but is now housing more than 1,000 people including those from previous landings.

   Many have been forced to sleep outside.

   Forty of the 155 survivors -- unaccompanied minors aged between 11 and 17 -- are among those living in squalor in the heavily-guarded centre. (AFP)