ALGIERS, June 5 (Reuters) - Eight Algerian illegal migrants trying to sail to Italy drowned off the north African coast and at least 20 other people are still missing, an Algerian newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Liberte daily, which has good contacts in the security services, said the migrants perished off the coast of the border area between neighbours Tunisia and Algeria as they tried to sail a small boat to Sardinia late last week.

The bodies of seven of the dead were still in Tunisian hospitals, while that of the eighth had been repatriated by his family, the newspaper said, adding the group had set off without identity documents.

An official at Algeria's emergency rescue services said officials authorised to speak to the media were not immediately available.

In Tunisia, officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Algerian coast guards say during 2006 they found a total of 42 bodies along the country's Mediterranean coastline, most if not all of them apparently illegal migrants.

Algerian government said recently it was tightening measures to cope with growing number of illegal migrants trying to cross its sea borders for a job and a better life in Europe.

The European Union has urged North African countries to do more to stop the flow of illegal migrants trying to reach Europe via Italy and Spain, the two countries most migrants see as their preferred entry point to the continent.

Algeria is also a transit point for migrants from African and other countries. Algerian authorities arrested 35,000 illegal migrants from 55 African and Arab nations over the past six years and deported 32,000 of them, newspapers have reported.