BEIRUT (AFP) — The Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut was evacuated after an anonymous bomb threat on Thursday, the latest scare in Lebanon as foreign governments take action on security amid mounting political and sectarian tensions.

In recent weeks Britain and the United States have urged their citizens in Lebanon to be vigilent, Saudi Arabia advised them against travel to the country while France shut two cultural centres for security reasons.

The threat against the Kuwaiti mission came just weeks after three people were killed in a bombing that targeted a US embassy car in Beirut, where a protracted political crisis has prevented the election of a president.

"The embassy's charge d'affaires Tareq al-Hamad informed me that he was contacted by an anonymous caller who said the embassy would be bombed," Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said in a statement.

"He immediately evacuated the building and contacted the Lebanese security services."

Kuwait reacted by advising its citizens to defer any travel to Lebanon "for their own safety," a foreign ministry statement said.

Security around the embassy was boosted after the anonymous threat was made to a foreign news agency, a Lebanese security official told AFP.

Lebanon is already mired in its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, with rival factions deadlocked over the choice of president, a post vacant since November.

The ruling coalition, backed by the West and most oil-rich Gulf Arab states, is at at loggerheads with the Shiite Hezbollah-led opposition on the process of electing a president and the make-up of a future government.

Street clashes in recent days between supporters of the majority and the Iranian- and Syrian-backed opposition have also raised tensions, prompting other foreign governments to take steps to protect their citizens.

Riyadh on Monday advised Saudi citizens against travelling to the country "due to the unstable political and security conditions" and urged those already in Lebanon to be cautious when moving around.

Saudi Arabia has been involved in trying to end the political stalemate in Lebanon, and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Wednesday that the country was "on the verge of civil war."

Also on Monday, the French embassy in Beirut said it had closed cultural centres in the southern port of Sidon and in the northern coastal city of Tripoli "for security reasons."

Last week the United States issued a travel advisory saying US citizens "should, as always, maintain a low profile."

On January 30 the British embassy also issued reminded its citizens living in Lebanon "to avoid large crowds and public demonstrations which have the potential to turn violent" and reiterated its advice against travel to Lebanon.

Lebanese media and officials speculated the bomb threat on the Kuwaiti embassy may be linked to controversy in the Gulf emirate after two Shiite MPs held a rally to mourn Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh, who was slain in a Damascus car bombing earlier this month.

The rally prompted outrage by Sunni MPs and organisations because of his alleged involvement in the 1988 deadly hijacking of a Kuwaiti plane.

Hezbollah official Nawaf Mussawi denounced the bomb threat, saying it was aimed at "undermining the close ties between the two brother countries (Kuwait and Lebanon)."

Salloukh condemned the threat as "unacceptable", as did Lebanon's parliament speaker and opposition leader Nabih Berri.

The latest scare came also comes amid fears of attacks against Israel by Hezbollah, which blamed the Jewish state for Mughnieh's murder.