BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon can no longer handle vast numbers of Syrian refugees, its president said on Monday, urging world powers to help them return to the calmer parts of their war-torn homeland. More than six years into the Syrian war, 1.5 million refugees who fled the violence now account for a quarter of Lebanon's population. Lebanese President Michel Aoun told international envoys he wanted to find ways for them to return safely but would not force people back to places where they could face persecution. "My country cannot handle it anymore," Aoun told representatives of the European Union, the Arab League and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council at a meeting in Beirut, his media office said.