French President Emmanuel Macron has named his former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as his personal envoy for Lebanon, in a new bid to end the country's political crisis, the presidency said on Wednesday.

Le Drian will be charged with helping to find a "consensual and efficient" solution to the crisis which has intensified after the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion, said a presidential official, asking not to be named.

The official said Le Drian, who served for five years as foreign minister up to 2022, had vast experience in "crisis management" and would be heading to Lebanon "very soon".