CAIRO  - Kuwait called on its citizens to leave Lebanon and told those wishing to travel there to wait, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry said its embassy in Beirut "calls upon Kuwaiti citizens present there to exercise caution and to stay away from sites of gatherings and security disturbances in some areas and to stay in their residences."

Later in the day, Qatar's embassy in Beirut issued an advisory, urging its citizens to remain cautious and avoid going to places of gatherings and "locations of security turbulences".

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy and Lilian Wagdy; Writing by Ahmad Elhamy; Editing by Edmund Blair and Steve Orlofsky) ((ahmad.elhamy@thomsonreuters.com; +201023399104; Reuters Messaging: ahmad.elhamy.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))