Libya's two rival centres of power have agreed to work jointly to amend a peace accord brokered by the United Nations, a spokesman for the Egyptian army said late Tuesday. Egyptian chief of the army staff, Mahmoud Hegazy, met separately in Cairo with head of Libya's UN-backed government, Fayez Serraj, and rival army commander Khalifa Haftar. Serraj and Haftar agreed to set up a joint committee to look into changing the UN-sponsored deal announced in December 2015 in order to reach a "consensus formula," the spokesman added on the army Facebook page. Later, the changes will be presented to Libya's elected parliament for endorsement, a step that will clear the way for holding parliamentary and presidential elections in Libya by February next year.

The agreement followed two days of Egyptian-mediated talks this week in Cairo, according to the Egyptian official. Egypt, which shares long border with Libya, has repeatedly expressed worries about security deterioration in its neighbor.

Libya has descended into political and security chaos since Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown and slain in a 2011 uprising. In March last year, Serraj's government took over in the capital Tripoli amid international hopes it will end chaos in oil-rich Libya.