LIBREVILLE, July 2, 2008 (AFP) - Three more bodies were discovered Wednesday on beaches around Libreville in Gabon, a coastguard chief said, taking the toll of would-be immigrants to 18 after their boat sank off Africa's west coast.

Fifteen bodies were found on Tuesday, with Benoit Mapota of the Gabonese police unable to rule out the possibility that even more corpses could be found.

According to one police official who wished to remain anonymous, some of the migrants aboard, who were said to have come from Nigeria, made it ashore alive in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Identity papers showed one of the dead was a Ghanaian man.

Boats frequently sink off Gabon, according to its Interior Minister Andre Mba Obame.

According to his calculations, the numbers attempting to reach oil-producing Gabon each year run into the 'tens of thousands' with some 400,000 clandestine migrants estimated to have taken residence in a country of just 1.3 million.