Egypt Tuesday denied any "direct" role in air raids on Islamist positions in Libya, after U.S. officials said the United Arab Emirates carried out the strikes from bases in Egypt.

"We have no direct tie to any military operation in Libya," Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri told journalists in Cairo.

UAE air strikes on Libya aim to prevent Islamists from controlling the violence-stricken country and sends a message to Washington that it is capable of protecting its own interests, experts say.

United States officials said that United Arab Emirates warplanes secretly bombed Islamist militia targets in Libya from bases in Egypt last week, but Abu Dhabi has not publicly acknowledged involvement. On Tuesday, Egypt denied any "direct" role in the raids.

The UAE armed forces, which U.S. officials say launched air strikes against Islamists in Libya, has 51,000 members, including 4,500 in the air force, the International Institute for Strategic Studies says.

The army has 44,000 personnel and the navy 2,500, the IISS says in its publication The Military Balance 2014.

Islamist militias have distanced themselves from jihadists seeking Islamic law in Libya, saying they support a democratic transition, but they are also challenging the legitimacy of the newly elected parliament.

Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militiamen, who seized Tripoli airport from nationalist Zintan fighters on Saturday, said in a statement published by the LANA news agency Tuesday that they "respect the Constitution and the peaceful transfer of power".

Signs the United States may strike Islamic State militants in their Syrian stronghold reveal a shift in the politics of foreign war in Washington, after the trauma of the post-Iraq era.

The United Arab Emirates had no comment Tuesday after US officials said warplanes from the Gulf state had secretly bombed Islamist militia targets in Libya flying from bases in Egypt.

Contacted by AFP, an Emirati official said only that his country has "no reaction" to such reports.

Libyan rescuers have recovered the bodies of around 170 people after a boat carrying illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa sank at sea last week, a coast guard official said Monday.

"We freed about 100 bodies trapped in the hold of the 16-meter (50-foot) wooden boat which foundered not far from the coast," Abdellatif Mohammed Ibrahim told Agence France Presse.

Libya's Islamist-dominated General National Congress on Monday threw down the gauntlet to the interim government of the near-lawless North African state by naming a prime minister-designate to form a rival administration.

The GNC, officially replaced earlier this month by a freshly-elected parliament, selected pro-Islamist Omar al-Hassi to form a "salvation government", a spokesman said.

A Libyan jihadist group urged other Islamists to unite under its banner on Monday after parliament appointed a new army chief to tackle the unrest sweeping the North African nation.

Ansar al-Sharia, which Tripoli and Washington have both branded a "terrorist" organization, made the call as Libya's foreign minister and his counterparts from neighboring states met in Cairo to discuss the Islamist threat.

Libya's neighbors Monday backed an Egyptian call for rival militias in the tumultuous North African country to be disarmed, agreeing with Cairo that there should be no foreign intervention to stem spiraling lawlessness.

Foreign ministers from Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan and Chad met a day after Cairo denied Islamist militia accusations that it had conducted an air strike against Islamists in Tripoli.