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New Libya Govt 'Hard to Talk With' - Lavrov

RIA Novosti

15:49 04/04/2012 BAKU, April 4 (RIA Novosti) - Libya's governing National Transitional Council (NTC) is "difficult to negotiate with," Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"The opposition had from the start been under the roof of the transition council, but now that [Col Muammar] Gaddafi is toppled, they are not particularly easy to talk with," Lavrov told reporters after talks with Azerbaijan's foreign minister in Baku.

Nearly six months after the ouster of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in a popular uprising last year, the NTC is still struggling to assert its authority across Libya.

Lavrov said Russia would like to see more effort from the authorities in building a "normal state."

His comments come just days after at least 14 people were killed in clashes between ethnic Berbers and Arab tribespeople in northwestern Libya. The violence followed clashes between rival militias in the southern desert oasis of Sabha last week which left around 150 people dead.

Lavrov expressed concerns about weapons' dissemination in Libya and said that Russia was working with the UN to find a "way out of this situation."

In a report in March, the UN Human Rights Council praised the new Libyan government's committment to human rights, but said militias aligned with the new authorities continued to carry out serious abuses.