France says it plans to set up "hotspots" in Libya to process asylum seekers, in a bid to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.
President Emmanuel Macron said the move would stop people not eligible for asylum from "taking crazy risks". The centres would be ready "this summer".
He said that between 800,000 and a million people were currently in camps in Libya hoping to get into Europe.
But many of them did not have a right to asylum, Mr Macron said.
The French leader said that migrants were destabilising Libya and Europe by fuelling people-smuggling, which in turn funded terrorism.
"The idea is to create hotspots to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum. We'll go to them," he said on Thursday at a naturalisation ceremony in the central city of Orléans.
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