The navy picked them up in choppy seas late on Wednesday andwas ferrying them on Thursday to a port near Syracuse onSicily's eastern coast, a statement said.
On board were men and women from Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia,Zambia and Mali as well as from Pakistan, the navy said.
Sea arrivals to Italy from Northern Africa more than tripledin 2013, fuelled by refugees from Syria's civil war andpolitical strife in the Horn of Africa.
In October, 366 Eritreans drowned in a shipwreck near theshore of the Italian island of Lampedusa.