The conflict in war-torn Libya has escalated this year, making is hard to stop the fighting in the foreseeable future, Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio told a parliamentary hearing on Thursday.
"Getting a truce and a permanent ceasefire remain difficult goals to achieve," Di Maio told the foreign affairs committees of Italy's upper and lower houses of parliament.
Since the Berlin peace conference on Libya held in January, there has been a "complete resumption" of the fighting, Di Maio told the lawmakers.
"We have been seeing almost daily Grad rocket attacks and shelling of health infrastructure, residential areas, ports and airports," Di Maio said.
Although world leaders pledged at the Berlin meeting to uphold a United Nations arms embargo against Libya and end foreign meddling, "massive external interference" continues in the former Italian colony, he said.
Mercenaries and "sophisticated weapons" are being supplied to "both sides" in the conflict that pits eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar's forces against those backing the internationally recognised unity government in Tripoli, Di Maio stated.
