U.N. envoy says Libya should start process for elections in spring

TUNIS (Reuters) - Libya should start the process to hold a national vote in spring 2019 after a national conference to discuss the country's conflict, the U.N. Libya envoy said on Thursday.

Western powers and the United Nations had originally hoped to hold national elections on Dec. 10 but violence and a deadlock between rival administrations had made that goal unrealistic.

"The National Conference is to be held in the first weeks of 2019. The subsequent electoral process should commence in the spring of 2019," Ghassan Salame told the U.N. Security Council, without being more specific.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)