U.S. to evacuate 6,000 from Lebanon by Friday

LARNACA, Cyprus, July 19 (Reuters) The United States expects to evacuate more than 6,000 of its citizens fleeing Israeli air raids against Lebanon by Friday, the commander of the operation said today.

Nine U.S. military ships, including a helicopter carrier and a dock landing ship, and thousands of marines and sailors were part of the operation.

Israel's week-long attacks launched in reprisal for the murder and kidnap of Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah guerrillas have forced thousands of Lebanese and foreigners to flee Lebanon by road or sea.

Brigadier-General Carl Jensen, Commander of Task Force 59 and in charge of operations, said more than 1,100 U.S. citizens were expected to be removed from Lebanon on Wednesday, and a further 3,000 tomorrow.

''We hope by this Friday we would have moved in excess of 6,000 from Lebanon who wanted to go voluntarily,'' Jensen told a news conference in Cyprus.

Hundreds of Westerners have abandoned Beirut for the east Mediterranean island by air and sea over the past three days.

Bracing for an influx of arrivals, the United States has rented the sprawling grounds of the Cyprus State Fair which lie on the outskirts of the capital Nicosia to temporarily accommodate people unable to immediately leave Cyprus.

The facility is a large compound of buildings which normally hosts trade exhibitions.

''This is for being prepared. We have booked the whole fairground to be on the safe side,'' said Jane Zimmermann, Deputy Chief of Mission of the American Embassy in Cyprus.

Embassy authorities were trying to ensure that their stay in Cyprus was as brief as possible and charter commercial flights were also being arranged, she said.

Jensen said the United States did not have an exact figure of how many of its citizens would want to leave Lebanon.

''This is not in any way, shape or manner an evacuation. This is an assisted departure,'' he said, adding the U.S. embassy in Beirut would remain open.

Cyprus, an EU member on the fringes of the volatile Middle East, lies some 85 km from the Lebanese coast. It has friendly ties with its Middle East neighbours and hosted thousands of Lebanese refugees fleeing the civil war in the 1970s and 1980s.

Reuters PKS DB2319