FILE PHOTO: Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi attends a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia October 8, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

ROME (Reuters) - Libya could hold elections next spring, Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Enzo Moavero said on Wednesday, after Italy hosted a two-day conference in Palermo to try to stabilize the troubled North African country.

Libya’s two main rival leaders met for the first time in more than five months in Sicily on Tuesday and its prime minister endorsed a United Nations plan for an election next year.

A previous U.N plan for elections next month was shelved last week.