Libya’s rival officials conclude election talks without deal

Rival Libyan officials wrapped up weeklong talks in the Egyptian capital without an agreement on constitutional arrangements for elections, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Twelve lawmakers from Libya’s east-based parliament and 12 from the High Council of State, an advisory body in the capital of Tripoli in western Libya, took part in the U.N.-brokered talks that concluded Monday in Cairo.

The U.N. special adviser on Libya, Stephanie Williams, said the officials agreed to reconvene next month after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Williams said the U.N. was working to build on a consensus reached earlier this year by the two chambers with the aim of reaching an agreement on a constitutional and legislative framework for parliamentary and presidential elections.

The talks came as Libya has been pulled apart with rival governments claiming power after tentative steps toward unity in the past year that followed a