Premier Matteo Renzi told Bloomberg news agency in an interview Tuesday that "we must avoid a new Libya" in Syria, where a bloody civil war has entered into its fourth year.
"I believe we need an agreement within a wide majority of countries to solve the problems in Syria", he said.
"The presence of (Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad is a major problem, but I believe the priority right now is to find out if each country involved in this terrible dossier can reach a compromise," he added.
Renzi added that foreign intervention in Libya in 2011 "lacked a strategy for the future" and this has led to "a country that, four years later, is out of control".
Any initiative in Syria will be only be credible if it solves the problem "for today and for tomorrow as well", he said.
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