Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio had a telephone conversation with his Libyan counterpart Mohammed El-Taher Hammuda Siala, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The statement gave no details of the talks but the internationally recognised government in war-torn Libya's capital Tripoli has announced a 24-hour-day curfew for 10 days starting from Wednesday due to concerns over the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Libya's premier Fayez al-Sarraj ordered the governor of the central bank to pay all government workers' salaries ahead of the lockdown after protests in eastern Libya, the Libyan Observer daily tweeted.
Protesters in the cities of in Bayda and Benghazi are complaining that they don’t have money to buy enough food for the 10-day curfew, according to the Libyan Observer.
Italy has been under a drastic lockdown for two weeks in a bid to stem the spread of Covid-19, which has killed over 6,000 people in Italy and infected around 60,000, making it the global pandemic's epicentre.
Libya has yet to record any Covid-19 cases, the Libyan Observer tweeted.
