FRENCH Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has called for the resumption of United Nations peace talks between the warring parties as fighting continues in Libya despite a ceasefire agreement.

Battle was raging in residential neighbourhoods of the capital Tripoli today between forces allied to the country’s parallel governments: the UN-backed Government of National Accord and General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), whose power base is in Tobruk.

The two sides have been vying for control of Libya, which descended into chaos following the 2011 Nato-led bombing campaign and the ousting of Muammar Gadaffi.

Mr Le Drian talked on the phone to GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj on Monday, with the officials both stressing the need for a speedy end to the escalating hostilities.

France has itself been accused of fuelling the war in Libya with questions being asked after Javelin missiles were found in an LNA camp last year.

Mr Le Drian admitted at the time that they were French missiles but denied supplying them, claiming they were lost by French soldiers operating in Libya.

Fears that Libya will become the new arena for a proxy war have escalated, with Turkey supplying thousands of jihadists from the Syrian battlefields to fight on the front line against the LNA.