"In light of the outbreak of civil war, we are lowering our sovereign credit ratings on the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to 'BB/B' from 'BBB+/A-2', S&P said in a statement.

"Following these rating actions, we suspended our ratings on Libya due to the imposition of sanctions and because of a lack of reliable economic and political information," it added.

The sanctions "effectively preclude us from maintaining a sovereign rating on Libya and because we currently lack timely and reliable information to maintain surveillance on the ratings," it added.

The suspension will remain in effect until the sanctions are lifted and reliable information is once again available, it said.