Libya is ready to combat and repel any military action the European Union is planning in its attempts to stop the smugglers using the North African state as a base to carry migrants across the Mediterranean, the Prime Minister of the Tripoli government has warned.

Alarmed at the increasing numbers of refugees from Africa and the Middle East using Libya as a transit point, Britain and its European partners are considering options including sinking the trafficking boats and carrying out armed operations in Libya.

In an interview with The Independent, the strategy was described by Khalifa al-Ghweil, the leader of one of two rival administrations in the country, as akin to the “colonial mentality” of Italian occupiers of Libya last century, and “completely unacceptable in the modern world”.