BEIRUT - Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Thursday that the recent period was a wake up call for the Lebanese with different loyalties to put their country first ahead of regional issues.

"The period that passed was perhaps like a wake up call for all of us to look for Lebanon's interests rather than looking at problems around us," Hariri said at the Annual Arab Banking Conference in Beirut. "The problems around us are important, but Lebanon is more important."

(Reporting by Sarah Dadouch and Lisa Barrington, Editing by Samia Nakhoul and Tom Perry and Matthew Mpoke Bigg) ((Sarah.Dadouch@thomsonreuters.com;))