File photo

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday held a phone conversation on Lybia, during which they rejected "foreign exploitation" of Libya conflict, said the White House.

"Regarding Libya, the leaders rejected foreign exploitation and agreed that parties must take urgent steps to resolve the conflict before Libyans lose control to foreign actors," the White House said in a statement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier in the day that Turkey would introduce a bill to send troops to support the UN-backed Libyan government as soon as the parliament resumes, calling the deployment a response to the country's invitation.

Also on Thursday, Interior Minister of the UN-backed government of Libya Fathi Bashagha revealed that a Turkish-Tunisian-Algerian alliance was formed to support the Libyan government.

"There will be a great cooperation with Turkey, Tunisia and Algeria, and we will be in one alliance," said Bashagha at a press conference in Tunis.

Bashagha stressed that the UN-backed government of Libya "is the only internationally recognized one, and it fights for democracy by facing extremism and terrorism."

The Tunisian presidency, however, denied later on Thursday that the North African country is involved in any alliance with any party in Libya.

Libya has been locked in a civil war that escalated in 2014, splitting power between two rival governments: the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital Tripoli and another in the northeastern city of Tobruk which is allied with the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar.

Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, France and Russia support Haftar's LNA, while the GNA is backed by Turkey and Qatar -- Egypt's regional rivals, in addition to Italy.