The boat, pictured before it
sank on Wednesday, in an image released by AMSA
Dozens of people rescued after a boat
sank were transferred to Christmas Island, amid fierce debate on the issue of
asylum in the Australian parliament.
On Wednesday a bill that would allow offshore processing of asylum seekers was passed in the lower house.
This is now being debated in the upper house, but is considered unlikely to survive the vote.
Australian officials said 130 people were rescued from boat - the second to sink in the area a week.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard warned that this was the ''last chance'' for parliament to pass the bill before it takes a break.
"I'm prepared to say to every senator... that this is the right thing for them to do in all good conscience," she told ABC Radio.
"I don't want to see a 13-year-old girl drown at sea in the weeks between now and when this parliament comes back in the spring. I don't want to see that," she said.
At least four people are believed to have died when the boat sank north of Christmas Island, which is part of Australian territory, on Wednesday.
Another asylum-seeker boat believed to have been carrying 200 people sank in the area a week ago.
That boat was believed to have been carrying about 200 people. A total of 110 people were rescued and 17 bodies were found. The search for survivors was called off late on Saturday.
On Wednesday night, another boat carrying 100 people was intercepted by Customs and Border Protection officials off Christmas Island.
Christmas Island lies off Australia's north-west coast. It is closer to Indonesia than Australia, and is targeted by asylum-seekers hoping to get to Australia.
These boats are often overloaded and poorly maintained. About 50 asylum-seekers died when their boat broke up on rocks off Christmas Island in December 2010.
Policy deadlock
The recent incidents have reignited debate over Australia's asylum seeker policy deadlock.
The new bill would reopen a detention centre on the Pacific island of Nauru and allow the Australian government to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia for processing.
Under a refugee swap deal with Malaysia, Australia would
send 800 asylum-seekers who arrived by boat to Malaysia and receive 4,000
refugees in return over four years.
Last year a court ruled against such a move, saying Malaysia - which has not signed UN refugee conventions - did not offer adequate protection.
The opposition is against the deal and is demanding that an immigration detention centre on Nauru be reopened.
Ms Gillard is pushing for a compromise to reopen the Nauru centre as well as go ahead with the Malaysia deal.
She wants the opposition to back a bill to allow an immigration minister to designate any country that is part of the Bali Process an offshore processing location.
The Bali Process is a regional group of more than 40 nations working together to deal issues of illegal boat arrivals and people smuggling.
Critics say such a move would provide inadequate protection for asylum-seekers' human rights.
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