Italy's deputy foreign minister Emanuela Del Re on Monday invited the UN-backed unity government's foreign minister Mohammed Siyala to an international conference next month aimed at stabilising the conflict-hit country, Siyala's ministry stated.
Del Re invited Siyala to take part in the high-level conference being held in Palermo, Sicily on 12-13 November during a visit to Libya on Monday, the statement said.
Italy hopes that the main power-brokers in Libya and the region will attend the Palermo conference.
Del Re invited eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar and the Tobruk-based parliament's speaker Aguila Saleh to attend the conference during talks with both men in Libya last week, according the Italian foreign ministry.
Del Re met Saleh in the city of Gubba and Haftar in Benghazi, in Libya's east, the Italian foreign ministry said in a statement said without giving details of the meetings.
Oil-rich Libya has been in turmoil since the UN-backed ouster of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with rival administrations in Tripoli and in the east and a myriad of militias including various jihadist groups.
