Italy recognises Libya's UN-backed unity government headed by Fayez al-Sarraj but views his rival, eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar, as a key player in the war-wracked country's east, foreign minister Enzo Moavero said on Friday.
"We believe there is a need to keep up constant dialogue with all the other players in Libya, also with General Haftar, who is still an extremely important actor in the east of the country," Milanesi told MPs.
Haftar, whose self-styled Libyan National Army controls swathes of the country, and who is allied with a rival government in eastern Libya, on 5 April launched a military assault to seize control of the capital, Tripoli.
The UN says nearly 400 people have been killed, almost 2,000 injured and some 50,000 have fled their homes since the fighting in Tripoli between Haftar's militia and those loyal to the Sarraj government could plunge the country into all-out civil war.
Libya has been mired in chaos since the Nato-backed rebellion that toppled late dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
