ROME, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- A migrant rescue ship with 182 people on board was expected to disembark in Italy's Sicily between Monday night and early Tuesday, as the country's new interior minister announced a preliminary deal on immigration policy was agreed with some key European partners.

The vessel Ocean Viking -- operated by aid groups SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders -- was authorized to dock at the port of Messina by Italian authorities, according to Italian media reports.

The vessel previously disembarked in Malta 35 of the 217 migrants rescued in three missions from the Mediterranean.

The disembarkation came after Italian new Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese met with her counterparts from Germany, France, and Malta in Valletta on Monday.

Their meeting was also joined by the representative of Finland, the Presidency of the Council of the EU, and the outgoing EU Immigration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos.

After the meeting, Lamorgese told Italian media a first deal has been reached among the participating countries.

"We are satisfied with the results achieved, and what I am especially happy to say now is that Italy is no longer alone: arriving to Italy, arriving to Malta ... means arriving to Europe," Lamorgese told Italian SKY TG24 all-news channel.

"We spoke about the principle of rotating the ports (of disembarkation) on a voluntary basis, and about the automatic distribution of migrants seeking asylum among all the countries that will join the agreement," she explained.

Lamorgese added the deal would be submitted to all of the other EU member states at the beginning of October in Brussels.

"We hope it will be shared by as many EU countries as possible," Lamorgese said. Enditem

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