Lebanon's top Christian cleric called on Sunday for early parliamentary elections and a new government that rescues the country rather than the ruling "political class" after the vast explosion in Beirut's port threw the nation into turmoil.

The now-caretaker cabinet resigned amid protests over the August 4 blast that killed more than 172 people, injured 6,000, left 300,000 homeless and destroyed swathes of the Mediterranean city, compounding a deep financial crisis.

Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, who holds sway in Lebanon as head of the Maronite church from which the president must be drawn under the country's sectarian power-sharing system, warned that Lebanon was today facing "its biggest danger."

"We will not allow for Lebanon to become a compromise card between nations that want to rebuild ties amongst themselves," Al-Rai said in a Sunday sermon, without naming any countries.

"We must start immediately with change and quickly hold early parliamentary elections without the distraction of discussing a new election law and to form a new government."

Several MPs submitted their resignations over the port explosion but not in the number needed to dissolve Parliament.

Under the constitution, President Michel Aoun is required to designate a candidate for prime minister with the most support from parliamentary blocs. The presidency has yet to say when consultations will take place.

Al-Rai said the Lebanese people want a government that would reverse "national, moral and material" corruption, enact reforms and "rescue Lebanon, not the leadership and political class."