Protest outside parliament against new government

Lebanese security forces used water cannon and tear gas canisters to disperse angry protesters in Beirut who tried to remove the metal barriers and barbed wires placed outside the parliament building as a new government was formed.

Protesters also fired firecrackers at riot police while others hurled stones.

A new Cabinet was announced late Tuesday, breaking a months-long impasse amid ongoing mass protests against the country's ruling elite.

Hassan Diab, a 60-year-old professor at the American University of Beirut, now heads a Cabinet of 20 members, mostly specialists backed by political parties.

The move, which comes three months after former Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned, is unlikely to satisfy protesters.

They had been calling for sweeping reforms and a government made up of independent technocrats that could deal with the country's crippling economic and financial crisis, the worst this tiny Mediterranean country has faced in decades.

Diab appealed to citizens to help the government implement a "rescue program" and said his Cabinet has the "capability and qualifications, will and commitment" to carry it through.

Lebanon had been without a government since Hariri resigned on October 29, two weeks into the unprecedented nationwide protest movement.