Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni is proposing deploying an Italian military force in Niger over the next few months to combat human trafficking and terrorism.

He says the Italian Parliament will be asked to approve transferring some of the troops now in Iraq to the African nation, a major route for migrant traffickers. He cited no numbers as he spoke Sunday aboard the Italian naval vessel Etna, which has rescued migrants from traffickers' foundering boats in the Mediterranean.

Gentiloni advised "concentrating our attention and energies on that mix of threats stemming from human trafficking and terrorism that has been consolidating in the last few years in the Sahel, in Africa."

Italy has recommended focusing on Africa as a strategy to combat trafficking of migrants to Libya and then northward toward Europe.