French President Francois Hollande has asked for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the deteriorating situation in Libya following the decapitation of Egyptian Copts.

But Italian premier Matteo Renzi is holding back. In an interview with TG 5 he said 'this is not the time for a military intervention'.

The position of the Italian government is to wait for the Security Council to 'work a little bit more convincingly on Libya. The international community has, if it wants to, all necessary instruments to intervene and the UN force is by far stronger than the radical militias.'

He added: 'Libya has been out of control these past three years. We have said this everywhere and will continue to do so. One cannot veer from total indifference to unreasonable hysteria.'

Meanwhile, Egyptian planes have carried out three separate incursions over Libya today, one before dawn, one at 11am and one at 2pm.