Basing ourselves on the categorical notions of central extensions and commutators in the framework of semi-abelian categories relative to a Birkhoff subcategory, we study central extensions of Leibniz algebras with respect to the Birkhoff subcategory of Lie algebras, called Lie-central extensions. We obtain a six-term exact homology sequence associated to a Lie-central extension. This sequence, together with the relative commutators, allows us to characterize several classes of Lie-central extensions, such as Lie-trivial, Lie-stem and Lie-stem cover, to introduce and characterize Lie-unicentral, Lie-capable, Lie-solvable and Lie-nilpotent Leibniz algebras.