ATHENS - Greece has said it is expelling the Libyan ambassador to the country, angered at an accord signed on November 27 between Libya and Turkey mapping out a sea boundary between the two countries close to Crete.

Mohamed Younis AB Menfi had 72 hours to leave the country, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias told a news briefing on Friday.

Dendias called the Turkey-Libyan accord a "blatant violation of international law".

The Libyan-Turkish agreement could complicate Ankara's disputes over offshore energy exploration in the Mediterranean with nations including Greece, which sees the move as infringing its sovereign rights.

Greece and Turkey are at odds over various decades-old issues ranging from mineral rights in the Aegean Sea to ethnically-split Cyprus.

Libya's neighbour Egypt dismissed the deal as "illegal", as did Cyprus.

The memorandums of understanding were signed after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a closed meeting with the internationally-recognised Libyan government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in Istanbul, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported quoting the Turkish Presidential Communications Directorate.

The move comes as Tripoli, the seat of the Government of National Accord (GNA), has been battling forces backed by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.

More than 1,000 people have been killed since April when Haftar's eastern-based, self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive to seize Tripoli.(FA)