Cyprus said yesterday it was "sinking" from the flood of thousands of evacuees fleeing Israel's bombardment of Lebanon.
Foreign Minister Giorgos Lillikas said his country, with a population of just under a million, was having extreme difficulty coping with the crisis during the peak summer tourist season.
He called on other EU nations to share the burden.
"We are sinking," Lillikas told state radio, adding that Cyprus was the only country in the EU which was offering its facilities to such an extent.
"We do not have the appropriate infrastructure to host so many people from third countries," he said.
Cyprus could not offer the refugees long-term asylum, he said.
"We are in a dilemma, as the government has to decide whether to continue our humanitarian efforts with the means we have or do what others do and not allow non-Europeans to use Cyprus, and not offer services to leave," he said.
Cypriot officials said they expect arrivals to reach 4,000 per day as a long line of ships from Greece, Italy and Britain waited to dock at the port of Larnaca.
More than 2,000 Americans arrived there overnight from the USS Nashville after being rescued by US Marines and put aboard a passenger liner charted by the US government. Another 1,000 people arrived on a ship chartered by the UN.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Ankara, Turkey, announced in a statement yesterday that US evacuees would transit through Turkey in the coming days to ease the burden on Cyprus.
The US was preparing to ship about 5,000 Americans from Beirut yesterday to nearly complete the evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon as the international exodus reached a peak.
So far, more than 700 Canadians have arrived in Turkey from Lebanon and another 4,000 Canadians were expected as Ottawa tries to evacuate some 30,000 of its citizens. Five ships were expected to bring more than 1,200 Canadians to Turkey throughout the night and a sixth ship was expected within 24 hours.
More than 100 Swedish citizens have also landed at a port on Turkey's southern coast.
In other developments, about 1,300 Britons arrived in Limassol, Cyprus, just after dawn aboard the HMS Bulwark as ships packed the eastern Mediterranean island's two main ports. Charter flights were taking most of the evacuees home.
The Philippines evacuated 188 people by bus to Damascus, and officials said yesterday they expect about 100 more.
India evacuated 608 people on Thursday from Beirut on the INS Mumbai to Larnaca, officials said yesterday.
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