Pope Francis used a first public audience in six months Wednesday to warn that Lebanon faces "extreme danger that threatens the very existence of the country" following last month's massive explosion.

The leader of the Catholic Church focused on the disaster-hit country almost a month after the huge blast in the Beirut harbor ripped through the city, killing 190 people and wounding at least 6,500.

Prime minister designate Mustafa Adib was to kick off talks Wednesday on forming Lebanon's crisis government within two weeks to begin enacting desperately needed reforms in the disaster-hit country.

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker said in remarks to Saudi Asharq el-Awsat newspaper on Wednesday, that the United States and France are in “constant contact about Lebanon,” and are “very interested” in the Mediterranean country.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Lebanon's embattled leaders had pledged Tuesday to form a crisis cabinet within two weeks to push forward with key reforms, as he visited the disaster-hit country.

Macron was in Beirut for a second time since an August 4 explosion there which killed more than 180 people, laid waste to entire city districts and fueled popular rage against the country's political elite.

Protesters in Beirut Tuesday called for a "new Lebanon" without its reviled leaders, urging visiting French President Emmanuel Macron not to cooperate with them.

Clashes erupted in the evening between angry demonstrators and security forces, who responded with tear gas, while earlier in the afternoon, people demonstrating in the capital called for urgent change.

French President Emmanuel Macron gathered Tuesday evening with representatives of the country's top nine political blocs in the second such talks since the blast disaster. 

Representatives of Hizbullah, designated by the U.S. and European countries as a “terrorist” group, were among those meeting Macron. 

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday announced that he is committed to seeking the establishment of a “civil state” in Lebanon.

“I hope our pains will become a motivation pushing us to turn into a civil state, in which competency would be the standard and the law would be the guarantee for equal rights,” said Aoun in a speech at a Baabda lunch banquet thrown in the honor of visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

All 25 suspects identified by a probe into the devastating August 4 Beirut explosion are now in the custody of Lebanese authorities, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday.

Authorities had already detained 21 suspects over the portside blast, which killed more than 180 people, wounded at least 6,500 others and wreaked devastation across the capital.

Fierce clashes erupted Tuesday evening between security forces and anti-government protesters near parliament’s building in central Beirut.

The confrontations followed a peaceful larger rally at the nearby Martyrs Square where speeches were delivered by representatives of the protest movement against a ruling class seen as being responsible for the economic collapse and port explosion.

Under pressure from its citizens and Western powers, the leaders of multi-confessional Lebanon have vowed to abandon a power-sharing system that is widely seen to plague political life.