Malta has started issuing Malta-only visas for Libyan citizens, while it has formally called on four other EU countries to join it in issuing Limited Territorial Validity (LTV) visas for as long as the visas stalemate between Schengen Area countries and Libya persists.

The Foreign Ministry said today that Foreign Minister Tonio Borg had over the past few hours had meetings with ambassadors of EU countries resident in Malta, where he briefed them about Malta's position and his talks in Tripoli last week with the Libyan Prime Minister.

Dr Borg said he would again raise the issue at the EU Foreign Ministers' meeting on Monday.

Malta, Dr Borg said, is proposing that the EU Mediterranean states should issue visas limited to their territories until the current dispute is settled.

He also formally made the proposal in letters to the foreign ministers of Spain, France, Italy and Portugal.

Dr Borg told the ministers that the current situation was leading to a serious rift in relations between the EU and Libya which would undermine the process of negotiations for an EU-Libya Framework Agreement.

It was in the EU's interest to continue to strengthen relations with Libya, particularly to safeguard progress achieved so far in areas such as the fight against illegal immigration and trade arrangements, Dr Borg said.

While Malta and other countries were continuing to seek a solution to the issue between Switzerland and Libya, an interim solution was urgently needed.

Dr Borg quoted from various provisions of the Schengen Agreement under which party states could issue visas with limited territorial validity "on humanitarian grounds, for reasons of national interest, or because of international obligations" .

He told the ministers that given the exceptional circumstances in which the citizens of their countries had found themselves in when being denied access to Libya, Malta was proposing cooperation between the five EU countries in the form of limited territory visas.

He said that his talks in Tripoli showed that Libya would consider the issuing of such limited Schengen visas as a satisfactory solution.

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