TRIPOLI: Libyan envoys at UN-backed talks to end nearly a decade of war voted Tuesday to pass the mechanism to choose an interim executive to govern until polls in December, the UN said.

The UN called it a “significant step forward”.

Oil-rich Libya has been torn apart by civil war since the NATO-backed uprising that ousted long-time dictator Muammar Qadhafi in 2011, with an array of militias filling the vacuum and civilian bodies struggling to impose their authority.

But talks held in the Swiss city of Geneva have brought together 75 delegates — selected by the UN to represent a broad range of constituencies — in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF).

“Following the agreement on a proposal for the selection mechanism of a unified executive authority... the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) conducted a one-day voting process,” the UN said, with the vote running from Monday to Tuesday.

A total of 73 percent backed the proposal. Libya is currently dominated by a unity government in Tripoli that emerged from previous UN-led talks in 2015.