Naming a new UN envoy to Libya is crucial to its stabilisation and unification, as is respecting the permanent ceasefire inked in October and accelerating UN-mediated political dialogue, Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio told deputy premier Ahmed Maitig.
"Stressing the urgency of the appointment of a new UN special envoy for Libya, Minister Di Maio underlined that the ceasefire agreement must be implemented without hesitation," the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday after a meeting between Di Maio and Maitig in Rome.
As was agreed in ongoing talks between Libya's rival factions, the coastal road between the northern costal cities of Sirte and Misrata must be reopened and all foreign fighters and mercenaries withdrawn, Di Maio told Maitig, the statement said.
Di Maio "underlined once again Italy's firm opposition to any form of external interference in Libya," the statement underlined.
"Di Maio also expressed his hope for the continuation of the reunification process of Libyan financial institutions," the statement went on.
Italy wants to strengthen bilateral economic cooperation including through the Italian-Libyan Joint Economic Commission, and to work together more closely in the areas of security and migration, the statement concluded.
War-ravaged Libya - Italy's former colony - is due to hold elections on 24 December.
Representatives of the internationally recognised government in Tripoli and the rival administration in Libya's east allied with warlord Khalifa Haftar have been holding UN-led talks since last year to name an interim government before the December polls, but have yet to agree on a voting mechanism to do so.
