US hopes to evacuate hundreds soon from Lebanon

WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) The United States today said it hoped ''in the very near future'' to evacuate hundreds of Americans from Lebanon as it made plans to bring out thousands of its citizens from a country that Israel has bombarded for days.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters the U S message to its citizens trapped in the conflict was, ''Make sure your bags are ready to go.'' The United States has evacuated dozens of people by helicopter from Lebanon over the last two days but now planned to ramp up the operation to bring out hundreds of Americans at a time, based on an assumption that thousands wanted to leave.

''We are working on making sure that people who want to leave can leave,'' McCormack said.

The United States estimates about 25,000 of its citizens are in Lebanon.

REUTERS PKS HT2352