President Michel Aoun on Wednesday said the new government must seek to regain international confidence in Lebanon and reassure the anxious citizens.

“The critical period requires doubling the efforts and work, especially that the government was formed amid very difficult economic, financial and social situations,” Aoun told ministers during the first session of Hassan Diab’s government which was formed overnight.

The newly formed government in crisis-hit Lebanon held its first meeting on Wednesday at Baabda Palace and was chaired by President Michel Aoun.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the formation of Lebanon’s new government after more than three months of nationwide protests, media reports said Wednesday.

More than a month after he was designated and nearly three after his predecessor Saad Hariri resigned under pressure from the street, Prime Minister Hassan Diab's cabinet of 20 ministers was announced on Tuesday.

The academic and former education minister, who was little-known in Lebanon until last month, insisted in his first comments as premier that his cabinet was a technocratic one that would strive to meet protesters' demands.

Lebanon got a 20-minister government led by former minister Hassan Diab on Tuesday, after 33 days of arduous negotiations.

The Cabinet’s line-up was announced following a meeting between Diab, President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri at the Baabda Palace.

Lebanon’s anti-government protesters started rallying and blocking key roads across the country shortly before a new government was due to be formed.

The protesters were gathering near parliament in downtown Beirut and outside the residence of MP Faisal Karami in Tripoli.

Six weeks after the enlarged meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon in Paris on December 11, the ISG met Tuesday in Beirut at the ambassadorial level.

The Strong Lebanon bloc announced Tuesday that the new government will be formed “despite all the difficulties we are hearing about.”

“Blocking its formation chokes the Lebanese and the country,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the bloc’s weekly meeting.

The new cabinet will be formed Tuesday evening and Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab will shortly head to the Baabda Palace after which the government's line-up will be announced, TV networks reported, quoting Baabda sources.

Speaker Nabih Berri is also preparing to head to the Baabda Palace, media reports said.

A decision will be taken Tuesday or Wednesday to form a “de facto 18-minister cabinet” should the ongoing efforts to reach consensus fail, LBCI TV said.

“A proposal for a government solution has been blocked by (Prime Minister-designate Hassan) Diab’s refusal to give up the labor portfolio to (Marada Movement chief Suleiman) Franjieh and (Speaker Nabih) Berri’s reluctance to give an answer on whether or not he is willing to give up the culture portfolio,” LBCI added.