Lebanon is a few days away from a "social explosion", caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Tuesday, calling on the international community to save the country.

Diab, in a speech after a meeting with several ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic missions in Beirut, also said his government could not re-start talks with the International Monetary Fund and only a new cabinet could do that.

"This government does not have the right to resume negotiations with the IMF to implement the recovery plan set by the cabinet, for this entails obligations on the next government that it may not endorse," he said.