UN-sponsored talks in Geneva between rival Libyan factions aim to reach agreement to form a unity government, the United Nations envoy for Libya said yesterday, as he tried to launch talks which only one side to the conflict has formally endorsed.

The EU has called negotiations a “last chance” to resolve the crisis in Libya, where a standoff between two rival governments and allied armed factions threatens to slide into civil war three years after Muammar Gaddafi’s demise.

“We are proposing an agreement and we are proposing a new unity government to start solving their political differences,” UN Special Representative for Libya Bernadino Leon told a news conference in Geneva.

“The second goal is to stop the fighting. I’m sure you all know that Libya is falling very deeply into chaos.”

We are proposing a new unity government

The talks are supposed to bring together delegates from the self-declared government which took over the capital Tripoli last year, as well as the internationally recognised government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni – and the armed forces allied to the rival administrations.

The new rulers of Tripoli said their legislature had postponed a decision over joining the Geneva talks until Sunday because of concerns about how the negotiations were organised, throwing the process into doubt.

Leon said the door would stay open and he was encouraged that several municipalities allied to Tripoli had decided to come. “It’s not one camp that is absent, it’s some people from this camp,” he said. Leon added that he hoped the talks would attract parties that were representative of the majority of Libyans, so there would be no need for a referendum on the outcome.

The delegates who gathered in Geneva yesterday, and appeared to mingle and chat amiably before posing together for a group photograph with Leon, included four members of the House of Representatives, the parliamentary authority behind the internationally recognised government now based in Tobruk.

The initial talks may last until Friday and could resume next week if the Tripoli faction decides to join.

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