By Reuters Staff

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       FILE PHOTO: Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the FY2022 State Department Budget Request on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., June 8, 2021. Shawn Thew/Pool via REUTERS

       BERLIN (Reuters) - It is crucial that Libya holds a national election in December as the only way to ensure peace and stability in the North African country, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday before a peace conference in Berlin.

       “We share the goal of a sovereign, stable, unified and secure Libya, free from foreign interference,” he said. “For this to happen national elections need to go forward in December. That means urgent agreement is needed on constitutional and legal issues.”

       Reporting by Joseph Nasr, editing by Angus McDowall

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