Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning appealed for diplomacy in Libya to be given another chance.

He said thatsince UN special envoy Bernardino Leon believed there was still a chance for a diplomatic solution, this route should be exhausted before military action was considered.

The United Nations Security Council discussing the Libya situation yesterday. Photo: Carlo Allegri, Reuters

Libya and Egypt yesterday asked the UN Security Council to lift an arms embargo on Libya to help it build up its army and tackle Islamic State and other extremist groups.

This was a step back from Egypt’s call earlier this week for a UN mandate to intervene militarily in Libya.

Italy also seems to have mellowed in its position calling for military intervention by a UN-led force.

Speaking to journalists this morning, Dr Muscat said that all countries, however, agreed on the need for some kind of UN intervention although the form such this intervention should take still had to be established.

He said that he discussed the situation with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi last night and told him he did not believe that initiatives such as those taken by Egypt in Derna, Libya, should be taken by one country but should be led and backed by the UN.

Egypt has attacked Derna  after IS extremists overran Sirte and released a video purporting to show the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians.

Dr Muscat also spoke about the Maltese who were still in Libya against the government’s advice and said that a handful had expressed a wish to return to Malta. He did not elaborate.

He reiterated that there was no imminent Islamic State threat in Malta but said this did not mean that the army would not be on stand by for any possibility.