The Presidents of France, Russia and Turkey join the Merkel meeting, which the UN also participates in. Also, the main combatants Khalifa Haftar and Fayez al-Sarraj, who lead each rival government in Libya, are also present.

It is the two latter who are to be persuaded to put the weapons aside and start cooperating. But the suspicion remains high everywhere - when Russia arranged a similar peace meeting a week ago, al-Sarraj signed a ceasefire agreement, while Haftar, after long hesitation, left Moscow without signing.

Hard pressure

A preliminary and shaky cease-fire is already a fact, which Haftar and al-Sarraj agreed to this week after hard pressure from Turkey and Russia. The two major powers are the main players in the conflict since Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently ordered to send troops to fight on al-Sarraj's side, while Russia already has mercenaries among Haftar's men.

For EU heavyweights France and Germany, Libya is a crucial frontier for migrant flows into the EU. The lawlessness there has attracted refugee smugglers, who have established illegal and deadly routes for migrants from many other African countries and even Asia. Italy has previously negotiated with Libyan leaders to control migrant traffic, but they insist that no one has full control over Libya's territory.

Not a new Syria

Anyone who wants to engage in crime has plenty of room in Libya. The country is four times the size of Sweden, and consists of mostly almost unpopulated desert - of the more than six million inhabitants, almost all of them live along the Mediterranean coast.

"We must ensure that Libya does not become a second Syria," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper.

- This conference can be a first step towards peace.

However, many are more pessimistic.

"The risk is that some participants only participate in the diplomatic initiative, and continue to fire on a war they are serving," said Claudia Gazzini, Libya expert at the organization ICG (International Crisis Group), according to the AFP news agency.