MADRID, July 26, 2008 (AFP) - Spain said Saturday that a boat carrying 72 illegal immigrants had landed overnight on the tiny Canary Island of La Gomera, taking the total number to arrive there in a 24-hour period to more than 150.

Among the 72 were eight 'possible minors' and two men so weakened by the journey from Africa that they had been taken to hospital, the authorities said. The remainder were taken to a holding centre on the island.

A first boat carrying 80 illegal immigrants had beached on Friday morning with one dead body, that of a 16-year old man, aboard.

At the start of July, four bodies were found on a boat bringing in another 55 migrants, with two more dying after landing in La Gomera, the second-smallest of the Canary Islands, off the coast of north Africa.

Several days earlier, 15 migrants, including nine children, died on the Mediterranean Sea in bad weather.

The Spanish government has intensified efforts along with Mediterranean partners France and Italy to quell the tide of illegal immigration from Africa.

A total of 921 would-be illegal immigrants died at sea trying to reach Spain in 2007, according to a tally by the Organisation for Human Rights in Andalusia (APDH-A), a Spanish humanitarian group.