The road to peace in Libya is a long one and to get there the international community must help re-establish security in the conflict-wracked country, Italy's foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi said on Tuesday.
Moavero called "an important step" the international conference which took place in Palermo on 12 and 13 November to support United Nations efforts to reunite Libyan institutions and set a new timetable for elections with a process beginning in the Spring.
"It (the conference) was an important step in a long and complex process," Moavero told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Rome on Mediterranean dialogue.
"There is still warfare taking place - we need to help Libya to re-establish security," he said.
The Palemo conference was seen as a symbol of Italy's determination to regain control of diplomatic initiatives on Libya. The former Italian colony has been in turmoil since the Nato-backed ouster in 2011 of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with rival administrations based in Tripoli and the east of the country backed by a myriad of armed groups.
