Cyprus asks EU for help with Lebanon evacuee influx

NICOSIA, July 20 (Reuters) Heaving under the pressure of hosting thousands who have fled Israeli attacks on Lebanon, the tourist island of Cyprus today asked fellow EU members for help.

At least 12,000 foreigners have fled through Cyprus since the mass exit from Lebanon started on Monday and the east Mediterranean island could see anything up to 70,000 people arriving at the peak of its tourist season.

''Right now Cyprus is the only outlet for foreigners from Lebanon. It is getting very difficult,'' said Makis Constantinides, the director-general of the Ministry of Communications and Works.

He said the EU needed to recognise the huge cost to the Cyprus economy and resources and offer help.

''(We need) the other EU member states to put their ports and airports at the disposal of the (evacuation) operation and help Cyprus face this huge humanitarian problem,'' he told Reuters.

Hotels at Limassol and Larnaca, the main reception towns, are fully booked. The United States has leased space at a fairground in the capital, Nicosia, to take in people it will be unable to immediately forward home.

Hundreds of orange-coloured folding beds lined the hangar-like trade exhibition halls. Scores of American evacuees awaiting flights out milled around, while children watched Hollywood blockbusters on small TVs.

BURSTING AT THE SEAMS With a population of less than a million Greek and Turkish Cypriots, the ethnically-divided island's sandy beaches are expected to lure about 2.5 million tourists this year.

''We are well trained to handle the hospitality side. The problem is getting the people out fast enough,'' said George Michaelides, a senior manager at Louis, the island's largest tourism group.

Cyprus's international airport at Larnaca was handling three times its normal capacity of 12,000 passengers per day before the crisis and was under pressure to receive more aircraft.

Cargo vessels at the ports of Limassol and Larnaca have been delayed as the priority shifted to servicing passenger vessels.

Foreign observers say Cyprus's own misfortune of being a war-partitioned island where 250,000 people -- a quarter of its population -- were internally displaced in 1974 and living in tent camps for years, leaves it a legacy of experience in handling humanitarian crises.

It also hosted thousands of Lebanese fleeing the civil war in the 1970s.

''They have pretty much gone out of their way to help,'' said a U.N. official based on the island who has previously worked on humanitarian contingencies in south-east Asia and Africa.

''Sadly, it's an island which has experienced the consequences of domestic and neighbourhood upheavals. It's that experience which has given it the ability to turn things around relatively quickly.'' REUTERS DKA PC2021