"I will talk to all political forces to ask them for a new pact. I am here today to propose a new political pact to them,"he said,shaking hands with residents on roads strewn with rubble and flanked by shops with windows blown out.

Residents,shop owners and volunteers have led clean-up efforts in the popular street of cafes and restaurants,where the blast ripped out balconies and smashed store facades.

Macron was applauded by crowds in the mainly Christian part of the capital,with chants of"Vive la France! Help us! You are our only hope!"

Some also chanted slogans against Aoun,who is a Maronite Christian,and leads by way of Lebanon's political arrangement of dividing powerful positions between religious communities.

One picture showed Macron hugging a woman who had earlier shouted that he was meeting with"warlords"to which he replied:"I'm not here to help them,I'm here to help you."

Macron also met with Prime Minister Hassan Diab,who is a Sunni Muslim,and Nabih Berri,the Shiite Muslim speaker of Parliament.

In France,some of Macron's political opponents criticised the tone of his comments.

"I am warning against any interference in Lebanon's political life. It won't be accepted,"Jean-Luc Melenchon,of the far-left France Unbowed party,said."Lebanon is not a French protectorate."

But others,including Macron's usual opponents,defended his stance.

"It's just as well he's asking for reforms from a government whose negligence and corruption is legendary,"Socialist lawmaker Raphael Glucksmann said."That's what Lebanese citizens are asking for. What they're shouting in the rubble. Any other tone would have been obscene."

Officials blamed the blast on a huge stockpile of a highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at the port. The government ordered 16 port workers arrested including general manager Hassan Koraytem. The central bank said it had decided to freeze his accounts and those of the head of Lebanese customs along with five others.

As families sought news of the missing,amid mounting anger at the authorities for allowing the huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate,there was a small but violent protest near an entrance to Parliament in central Beirut,where riot police deployed after some demonstrators burnt objects and hurled rocks at security forces blocking the entrance,footage from local broadcasters showed.

Many Lebanese,who have lost jobs and watched savings evaporate in a financial crisis,say the explosion was symptomatic of neglect and corruption in the political system.

Reuters