Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate quit on Saturday after trying for almost a month to line up a non-partisan cabinet, dealing a blow to a French bid aimed at rallying sectarian leaders to tackle the worst crisis since the nation’s 1975-1990 civil war.

Mustapha Adib, former ambassador to Berlin, was picked on August 31 to form a cabinet after President Emmanuel Macron intervened to secure a consensus on naming him.

Under the French road map, the new government would take swift steps to tackle corruption and implement reforms needed to trigger billions of dollars of international aid to fix an economy that has been crushed by a mountain of debt.

The nation took a further knock when a huge explosion on August 4 at Beirut port ruined a swathe of the capital.

Adib, a Sunni Muslim, said: “I stress that this (French) initiative must continue.” He met President Michel Aoun, a Christian. Adib wished his successor well in the “hard task” of forming a government.