The European Union is set to launch a naval mission on Monday against gangs smuggling migrants from Libya but it will be limited to intelligence-gathering for now because of a lack of UN authority or Libyan consent.

The European Union is set to launch a naval mission on Monday against gangs smuggling migrants from Libya but it will be limited to intelligence-gathering for now because of a lack of UN authority or Libyan consent, Reuters news agency reported Thursday.

The operation is part of a stepped-up European response to a wave of thousands of people from Africa and the Middle East making the dangerous crossing from Libya to Europe.

Many have drowned in the Mediterranean, including around 800 killed in a shipwreck in April.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday are expected to agree to launch the mission, diplomats said, but will authorize only a first phase using ships and planes to gather intelligence about the migrant traffickers' activities in international waters.

"Ministers would only be launching phase one, which is essentially intelligence-gathering on the high seas. They would only have a legal mandate to launch phase one in the absence of a Security Council resolution," one EU diplomat said.

European members of the 15-member Security Council were drafting a resolution to approve the operation under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows the use of force.