ROME (Reuters) - Four Italian citizens have been kidnapped Libya, the Italian foreign ministry said on Monday.

The four employees of construction company Bonatti were kidnapped near a compound owned by Italian oil and gas group Eni in the Mellitah area, the ministry said in a statement.

Italy closed its embassy in Libya in February as the North African country sunk further into violence, with two rival governments operating their own armed forces under separate parliaments, four years after a civil war that ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie; editing by Agnieszka Flak)