The US military said Wednesday it was stepping up the evacuation of American citizens by bringing out more than 6,000 people from war-ravaged Lebanon to the safe haven of nearby Cyprus.
"If all goes well ... we hope by this Friday we would have moved in excess of 6,000 from Lebanon, all who wanted to go out voluntarily," US evacuation task force commander Brigadier General Carl Jensen told reporters.
Some 1,059 Americans were expected to arrive in Cyprus on the cruise ship Orient Queen shortly after midnight Wednesday. An additional 3,000 were expected to follow later on Thursday.
"There are ferry vessels, US navy ships and military aircraft in the east Mediterranean to ferry citizens who want to leave," said Jensen. He stressed this was an "assisted departure" rather than an evacuation. "Many are remaining in Lebanon and the US embassy there will remain open," he added.
But the United States, which has some 25,000 nationals in Lebanon, is likely to send troops to the country to protect its citizens who are being evacuated, US President George W. Bush said in a letter to Congress on Wednesday.
US marines have already helicoptered several dozen priority cases to Cyprus to escape the week-long Israeli onslaught against Lebanon. The US embassy in Nicosia, meanwhile, was keen to stress that "our goal is to co-ordinate the sea lift with charter commercial flights leaving for the US", using Cyprus as a transit point.
Wary that the holiday island at peak season may run out of accommodation if people become stranded on Cyprus, America's priority is to "minimise time on the ground as much as possible", said US embassy official Jane Zimmerman.
The embassy is setting up a makeshift transit camp to process the thousands of American nationals headed for Cyprus's shores in the coming days.