PARIS (AFX) - Governments across the world stepped up measures Sunday to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon as the violence there intensified.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters at the G8 summit of industrialised nations in Saint Petersburg an aircraft would leave Moscow Monday morning to fly Russian nationals home from the Jordanian capital Amman. 'It is due to repatriate 74 citizens of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, mostly women and children,' he said.
A ferry chartered by the French government to evacuate its nationals is due to arrive off the coast of Lebanon during the night and start taking on board its first passengers early Monday, the foreign ministry in Paris said Sunday.
The boat can accommodate up to 1,600 people and will shuttle between Cyprus and the Lebanese coast, taking off those of the estimated 20,000 French tourists and residents in Lebanon who wish to leave, as well as other foreigners.
Three helicopters are being sent to Larnaca in Cyprus, as well as two aircraft, one a communications centre and the other a mobile headquarters. Two warships left ports in the Mediterranean on the way to the region.
The British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious sailed from Gibraltar Sunday to help evacuate British citizens, Sky News reported, citing its correspondent who saw the ship depart. The amphibious assault ship HMS Bulwark is also reported to be on its way to the area.
About 3,500 British families, or 10,000 people, live in Lebanon, and there are some 10,000 people with dual nationality.
Washington said Sunday it was making plans to evacuate thousands of its citizens trapped in Lebanon.
'In terms of what the United States government might do to assist its citizens in Lebanon, we are laying the groundwork (for evacuations) should the conditions permit to help those people get out,' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told the Fox television network.
Several European countries have announced plans to evacuate their citizens by land to Syria or by ferry to Cyprus since Israeli air strikes pounded deep craters in Beirut airport runways last week, making air travel impossible.
The Cypriot foreign ministry said it was prepared to support a joint European Union-coordinated mass evacuation of Europeans stranded in Lebanon, and gave permission for its ports to be used for sea evacuation.
Poland's Foreign Minister Andrzej Sados said around 150 Polish nationals, including the families of diplomats there, would leave Beirut for the Syrian border in a convoy of buses on Tuesday morning.
Romania's President Traian Basescu called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss repatriating the estimated 1,000 Romanians in Lebanon, 330 of whom had asked to be evacuated, his office said in a statement. Around 125 Romanians have already left via Syria.
Australia is drawing up an evacuation plan for thousands of its citizens trapped in Lebanon, Prime Minister John Howard said.
Howard said about 25,000 dual Lebanese-Australian nationals were living in Lebanon along with 3,000 Australian visitors.
About 350 evacuees arrived in Rome Sunday morning from Cyprus aboard two flights. The first was carrying 191 passengers, mostly Italians but also 57 foreigners: Austrian, French, Lebanese and Spanish nationals.
The second carried 162 passengers, 131 of them non-Italians.
On Saturday Italy organised the evacuation of 410 people, mostly Italian, to Syria from where Italian military transports flew them to Cyprus. A chartered flight from Damascus arrived in Athens Sunday with 57 Greek nationals and about 20 foreigners aboard, the foreign ministry said.
The Greek government said Sunday evening a warship would leave Athens for Lebanon 'in the next few hours' to bring home another 100 Greeks who had asked to be repatriated.
Spain, which Saturday repatriated 126 people, all but 10 of them its own nationals, said Sunday it was mounting a second operation to fly out more of the Spanish community in Lebanon estimated to be 600-strong.
On Saturday, 31 Austrian nationals were evacuated by bus from Lebanon to Latakia in Syria along with other Europeans, and another bus with 26 Austrians and a few Slovenians crossed the Lebanese-Syrian border Sunday as part of a German-Swiss convoy. They were expected to fly out of Damascus.
According to the foreign ministry, 120 Austrian expatriates live in Lebanon. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/hjp COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited