Italian military action in Libya is unthinkable: Pinotti

Her Idea came a few days after Italy agreed that US forces can use an airbase in Sicily to launch drone strikes against Isis targets in the north African country on a case-by-case basis.

In an interview with Mediaset television, Pinotti insisted that Libya can only be stabilized by the intervention of local forces, although she added that stabilization “was hard to imagine without speaking to the Libyans themselves”.

Pinotti said on Tuesday that any strikes launched from the Sigonella base in Sicily would be limited to operations required to protect US and allied persoel and assets involved in combatting Isis in Libya and elsewhere.

Each strike would also be subject to an individual authorisation request to the Italian govement and they would only be used as a "last resort".