• Pope Leo urges Lebanese leaders to persevere with peace efforts
• Leo says religions must unite to help stabilise country
• Lebanon faces economic crisis, conflict spillover, and migration waves
• Pope says prayer gives strength even amidst 'sound of weapons'
• Leo to visit Beirut port blast site

Pope Leo urged leaders from Lebanon's many diverse religious sects Monday to unite to heal the country after years of conflict, political paralysis and economic crisis that have prompted waves of migration abroad.

Leo, the first US pope, met members of diverse communities, and called on them to show that people of different traditions "can live together and build a country united by respect and dialogue".

The Pope, who is on what he has described as a mission of peace, has urged Lebanon's leaders to persevere with peace efforts in the aftermath of last year's devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah, and continued Israeli strikes.

The 70-year-old pontiff, elected in May, is visiting Lebanon until today on the second leg of his first overseas trip, which started in Turkiye.

At Beirut's central Martyrs' Square near its large, blue-domed mosque, the Pope told religious leaders they must be "builders of peace", working to confront intolerance and overcome violence.

Lebanese representatives of the Alawite and Druze communities, which have suffered through bouts of sectarian violence in neighbouring Syria this year, spoke at the event.

In the crowd, Alawite Mohammed Saleh said his community needed peace, protection and dignity. "We ask him humbly to remember in his prayer the Alawite community in the Middle East," Saleh said.

Leo also visited the tomb of St Charbel, a Catholic saint, before heading to Harissa, a Catholic shrine on a mountaintop overlooking the Mediterranean just north of Beirut.

Before speaking at the shrine, Leo heard testimonies from people living in Lebanon. Loren Capobres, a Filipina migrant in the country for 17 years, told Leo about her experience living through war.

The Pope said stories like hers show the need to "take a stand to ensure that no one else will have to flee from his or her country due to senseless and cruel conflicts".

Lebanon has been rocked by the spillover of the Gaza conflict, as Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah group went to war, culminating in a devastating Israeli offensive.

The country, which hosts 1mn Syrian and Palestinian refugees, also is struggling to emerge from a severe economic crisis following decades of profligate spending that sent the economy into a tailspin in late 2019.

About 15,000 young people gathered for an event with the Pope Monday evening outside the Maronite Catholic headquarters.

Israel says its continued strikes since last year's ceasefire agreement are to prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing military capabilities and posing a renewed threat to communities in northern Israel.

Leo's schedule for today includes a prayer at the site of a 2020 chemical explosion at the Beirut port that killed 200 people, an outdoor Mass on the Beirut waterfront and a visit to one of Lebanon's few mental health facilities.

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