Libya talks pause with interim government yet to be named

Talks on Libya's future have adjourned without naming a new government to oversee a transition to possible elections next year, and acting UN envoy Stephanie Williams has said there was a lot of work still to do.

The 75 participants chosen by the United Nations to meet over the past week in Tunis had already agreed to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on December 24 next year.

However, the talks ended on Sunday without any agreement on a unified executive authority that Williams had said was required to reach elections.

"Ten years of conflict cannot be resolved in one week," she said at a news conference after the talks finished.

Delegates will resume talks online next week to discuss a reformed structure and role for the executive authority, Williams added. They will also discuss the question of a constitutional basis for the election.

READ MORE: Libya to hold elections

The talks come as part of a wider peacemaking process along with a military ceasefire agreed between the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and warlord Khalifa Haftar who tries to garner international credibility under the title 'Libyan National Army' (LNA), with his militias. 

Some Libyans are sceptical about a process that has followed nearly a decade of chaos and bloodshed and repeated previous efforts to resolve the country's divisions.

The GNA emerged from a UN-backed political agreement in 2015, but the peace was spurned when in 2019, warlord Haftar launched an offensive on Tripoli.

READ MORE: Mass graves found in areas liberated from warlord Haftar

Efforts for a long-term political settlement failed until now due to Haftar’s military offensive, but the warlord's forces were repelled by pro-unity government forces boosted by Turkish military support.

That led to a formal ceasefire deal in October.

Haftar and his militias are backed by the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Egypt.