With eye on Islamic State threat, Western powers meet Libyan factions

ROME (Reuters) - Western powers on Sunday met envoys from Libya's political factions to nudge them towards agreeing on a unity government, hoping this would stop the spread of Islamic State militancy in the chaotic North African country.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni, flanked by United Nations envoy Martin Kobler, chaired a meeting of foreign ministers and senior officials from North Africa, the Middle East and Europe. They were joined later by 15 representatives of Libyan factions.

Various sides last week agreed to Dec. 16 as a date to sign the deal, but some hardliners are resisting. Past deadlines have slipped while wide areas of the sprawling oil-producing country splintered into fiefs of rival armed groups.

With Libya less than 300 km (190 miles) across the Mediterranean Sea, Italy has sought to focus international attention on the OPEC country's drift towards anarchy, particularly since last month's Islamic State attacks in Paris.

"Conflict, instability in Libya have gone on for too long," Kerry tweeted from inside the meeting. "Broad participation here reflects (international) support for unified, secure and stable Libya."

Later, he added: "Need to lay groundwork for a unified government in Libya to bring the country together and respect rights, interests of all Libyans."

A senior U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting would endorse the agreement, hoping it would give Libyans confidence to move ahead knowing they had international support.

"Libyans wanted to know that if they took this step the international community would support them on it," the official told reporters.

The agreement would allow a new Libyan government to ask for international military assistance to fight Islamic State's growing presence, which has mushroomed since a Western-backed rebellion toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi four years ago.

"Libyans want to fight back, they want international help in fighting back," the official said. "That is up to the Libyans, ultimately, but we expect that they will do so, and the outsiders will then help with training and equipping in appropriate ways."

With around 3,000 fighters, Islamic State has solidified its foothold in Libya by taking over the central city of Sirte. It has attacked a hotel and a prison in Tripoli, oil fields and military checkpoints, and issued a video of its militants beheading 21 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach.

"We must show that governments can act faster and more effectively than the terrorist threat," Gentiloni said on Saturday.

The recognized government and elected House of Representatives have operated only in the east of Libya since last year, when the capital Tripoli was seized by a faction that set up its own government. Each side is backed by competing alliances of former anti-Gaddafi rebels.

The U.N. proposal calls for a presidential council with the House of Representatives as the legislature alongside a second consultative chamber, the State Council.

The presidential council could form a government in 30 days once a deal is signed and that would be ratified by parliament and bolstered by a U.N. Security Council resolution.

But with Libya already fragmented, questions linger about how opponents and armed factions which might reject a deal will react to what they will see as an unrepresentative Tripoli government, and how they can be brought onboard after.

"Ending negotiations will strengthen hardliners; granting recognition to a government that has insufficient backing will condemn it to irrelevance," the International Crisis Group think tank said in a statement before the Rome meeting.

AIR STRIKES, UNITED ARMY

Any government faces huge challenges with the oil industry reeling from attacks and protests. Output is less than half of the 1.6 million barrels per day the OPEC state had before 2011.

Security for Tripoli and assembling a military force for a new government will be important. Libya has no real national army, but two coalitions of forces whose ranks have fragmented.

Western officials do not rule out more unilateral air strikes on militants. The United States has carried out air strikes and France has conducted surveillance flights.

But with most in the West opposing "boots on the ground" deployments, initial efforts will likely focus on training and aiding local forces.

"There won't be a Libyan army as we'd like it, but there are a number of forces, which if they worked together would have enough strength to hit Daesh," said one Western official using the pejorative Arabic term for Islamic State.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Steve Scherer in Rome, Patrick Markey in Algiers, John Irish in Paris, Jonathan Landay in Washington; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Mark Potter)