VALLETTA, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - The body of another would-be immigrant was spotted in the area of a shipwreck off Malta, bringing the death toll in the disaster to at least four, the Maltese army said on Tuesday.

'In a search conducted in the area for a number of dispersed migrants, an Italian navy Atlantique aircraft sighted the corpse of one young male migrant wearing a lifejacket,' the army said in a statement.

Bad weather prevented the Italian navy ship La Fenice from retrieving the body, it added.

The search for survivors from the accident on Monday was called off overnight, an army spokesman told AFP.

Three bodies were plucked from the water as 47 survivors were rescued from the wreck near Malta and Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa.

The number of missing from the stricken vessel could be much greater, an Italian port authority in nearby Sicily told AFP, noting that the would-be immigrants said more than 70 had been people aboard the boat.

Every summer sees a surge in the number of people risking the voyage aboard rickety vessels for the chance of a better life in Europe.

More than 600 people arrived in Lampedusa last Tuesday, forcing local authorities to set up an air bridge to send them on to other processing centres on the Italian mainland.

Lampedusa, some 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Sicily and 300 kilometres north of Libya, is a main destination for would-be immigrants, mainly setting sail from Libya.

Rome and Tripoli signed an accord in December to set up joint patrols to fight illegal immigration, but it has yet to be implemented.