PALERMO, November 12. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived on Monday evening in Italy’s Palermo to attend the international conference on Libya.

After talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in late October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would be represented at the Palermo conference "at a very high level." However, the Kremlin said that the Russian president would not be able to attend the conference.

Ahead of the conference, on November 11, Russian presidential special envoy for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Bogdanov met in Palermo with President of Libya’s High Council of State (HCS) Khalid Al-Mishri to exchange views on way of normalization of the situation in that country.

The conference kicked off on Monday evening with an official dinner. A plenary session is planned for Tuesday. The results of the conference will be summed up by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at a news conference. It is not ruled out that the forum will yield a joint document or declaration.

The forum was initiated by the Italian government and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte personally. It will be attended by high-level delegations from North African countries, as well as from Russia, the United States and Libya.

The forum is geared to give a fresh impetus to the process of political settlement in Libya under the auspices of the United Nations, to demonstrate the readiness of the international community to offer consolidated support to all responsible forces in Libya in the implementation of this task.

Currently, there are two governments in Libya: the internationally-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli and a cabinet based in the country’s east, which is acting jointly with the House of Representatives and is supported by the Libyan National Army. The parties have been failing to find a political solution to the crisis.