Rome and Moscow need to cooperate more to stabilise war-ravaged Libya, Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio and his Russian counterpart Sergio Lavrov agreed Wednesday at talks in the Russian capital.
"There is currently a window of opportunity to make progress in stabilising the country politically," Di Maio said at a press conference.
Libya was plunged into chaos after the Nato-backed ousting of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Since 2014, it has had rival administrations in Tripoli in the east, each backed by a myriad of armed group, which have been vying for control of the oil-rich country.
Italy supports Libya's internationally recognized national unity government (Government of National Accord) while Russia backs eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar and GNA-opposed forces.
As part of international diplomatic initiatives to end Libya's conflict a range of political, military and economic talks between Libya’s east and west held have been held recent months in Egypt, Switzerland and Morocco.
