US ready to loosen Libya arms embargo: US official

Libyans demonstrate in Benghazi calling for military forces to re-capture the southern city of Sirte from the Islamic State group without foreign intervention ©Abdullah Doma (AFP/File)

The US government is ready to loosen a United Nations ban on arms exports to Libya, in a bid to help the country's fledgling unity government fight the Islamic State group, officials and diplomats told AFP Thursday.

"If the Libyan government prepares a detailed and coherent list of things that it wants to use to fight ISIL, and responds to all the requirements of the exemption, I think that (UN Security) Council members are going to look very seriously at that request," a senior administration official told AFP, using an alternate acronym for the IS group. 

"There is a very healthy desire inside of Libya to rid themselves of ISIL, and I think that is something we should be supporting and responding to."

Source: AFP.