Libya’s internationally-recognized parliament decided on Monday to reject a United Nations proposal for a unity government, lawmakers said, in a blow to efforts to end a political crisis.

Libya's internationally-recognized parliament decided on Monday to reject a United Nations proposal for a unity government, lawmakers said, in a blow to efforts to end a political crisis.

However, Reuters reported that the House of Representatives (HoR) said it would continue to take part in UN-backed peace talks with its rivals, based in the capital, Tripoli.

Libya is in the grip of a war between the internationally-recognized government and its elected parliament on the one side and an unofficial self-styled government controlling Tripoli. Each side is backed by rival alliances of armed factions.

The UN proposal came after months of protracted negotiations between delegates from both sides, who have faced pressure from hardliners and from continued fighting on the ground that has halted part of Libya's oil production.

"The majority of the HoR members rejected the UN-proposed unity government in today's meeting and called for the peace dialogue to be continued," the parliament member and its general rapporteur Saleh Ghalma said.

The parliament spokesman Faraj Hashem confirmed the rejection but said the House of Representatives had not voted on it. "The president of the House, Aghila Saleh, read a statement and left, this is an arbitrary decision," he told Reuters.

The Tripoli-based parliament has not decided on the UN proposal.

The United Nations proposed a national unity government to the warring factions this month.

Ghalma said the House of Representatives had rejected all amendments added by the UN special envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon to a draft agreement initialed in July. "We demand to have one prime minister with only two deputies," Ghalma said.

The parliament decision comes two weeks after Western powers endorsed the unity government proposed by the UN and called on Libya's factions to accept it.