The European Union's "weakened" Sophia naval mission to combat migrant and arms trafficking in the Mediterranean should be bolstered, Italy's defence minister Elisabetta said on Tuesday.
Operation Sophia "is not dead, it has been somewhat weakened," Trenta told Adnkronos Live.
Sophia's sea patrols were halted in March until end-September with only air patrols and training of Libyan coastguard continuing after Italy's populist government threatened to veto the whole operation.
"I have always defended the mission and will continue to do so. It has been an exceptional tool," Trenta said.
Sophia, which has two ships and five planes and helicopters, was set up in 2015 to prevent loss of life at sea in a year when over 3,770 people died or went missing trying to reach Europe in unseaworthy boats.
"Sophia needs to be tweaked, we need to change its rules for (migrant) disembarkations which should be shared much more widely by Europe," Trenta said.
Trenta was referring to Italy's longstanding opposition to the mission's current rules of engagement requiring all rescued migrants to be landed at Italian ports.
"We also need to extend the mission's mandate to cover oil smuggling - I back Sophia's strengthening," she concluded.
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