British helicopters evacuate 40 people from Beirut

LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) Britain evacuated around 40 people from Beirut by military helicopter today in its first official evacuation from Lebanon as Israel bombarded the country.

The evacuation came as Royal Navy warships moved towards the coast as part of contingency planning for a possible larger evacuation of some of about 10,000 British passport holders which could begin within the next few days.

Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged to act as quickly as possible to get more expatriates out, saying Britain was seeking to establish an ''air bridge'' -- using helicopters to take people to nearby safe havens -- to evacuate urgent cases.

''We have got a rapid deployment team now in Lebanon, in Beirut, seeing how quickly we can do this,'' he told reporters at the G8 summit in St Petersburg.

''We are looking at the possibilities of an air bridge, though that is complicated for very obvious reasons by what has happened to the airport in Beirut,'' Blair said. ''But we will do everything we can, particularly to get the most needy out as quickly as we can.'' A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London said today's evacuees, who were mainly women, children and those in need of medical care, were flown out of the capital Beirut early today in Royal Air Force (RAF) Chinook helicopters.

SOLANA LEAVES BEIRUT The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who visited Beirut yesterday, was among them and they were taken by helicopter to Cyprus, officials said.

''They included a number of urgent cases, women and children and people who were ill,'' the spokesman said. He stressed none was suffering injuries from the escalating conflict.

Most of those evacuated were British, but some dual-nationals and some other EU nationals were among the 40.

A defence ministry spokeswoman said 3,500 to 4,000 British families and 10,000 dual nationals were registered in Lebanon.

James Watt, Britain's ambassador to Lebanon, said the advice to remaining British nationals in Lebanon was to ''stay put and keep safe'' until a larger evacuation was possible.

He said he hoped the Royal Navy ships would be in a position to begin that evacuation ''within the next day or two''. Safe passage of evacuees would be agreed in advance with Israel, as it was for today's helicopter evacuation. ''We have direct channels to the Israelis ... And in a consular emergency like this it is normal to give safe passage,'' Watt said.

REUTERS PA VV1609