Somalia's government said on Monday about 200 or more Somalis may have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross illegally to Europe, many of them teenagers, when the boat they were on capsized after leaving the Egyptian shore.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella had said earlier on Monday that several hundred people appeared to have died in a new tragedy in the Mediterranean, after unconfirmed reports spoke of up to 400 victims of capsizing near Egypt's coast.

More than 1.2 million African, Arab and Asian migrants have arrived in the European Union since the start of last year, many of them setting off from North Africa in rickety boats that are packed full of people and which struggle in choppy seas.

"We have no fixed number but it is between 200 and 300 Somalis," Mohamed Abdi Hayir, Somali information minister, told Reuters by telephone when asked about possible Somali deaths in the latest incident.