ARMED militias in control of Tripoli for years have agreed to leave the Libyan capital.

Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi told journalists on Wednesday that a deal had been struck for the groups to hand over policing of the Libyan capital to regular forces.

Mr Trabelsi, part of the internationally recognised government of Libya, said that after lengthy negotiations it had been agreed to replace the militias with emergency police, city officers and criminal investigators.

Armed militias have controlled large parts of Libya after the Nato-backed overthrow of the country’s long-time leader Colonel Muammar Gadaffi in 2011.

Libya is currently divided between the internationally recognised government in the west, led by interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli, and an administration in the east run by militia leader Khalifa Haftar.

Mr Trabelsi said from now on the militia’s “place is in their headquarters,” adding the Libyan government “will use them only in exceptional circumstances for specific missions.”

The deal will see at least five armed groups leave Tripoli by the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on April 9.

This includes one militia group that ruled an area of the Libyan capital where 10 people were killed over the weekend.