Australia, the Philippines and New Zealand were all scrambling to locate buses and ships capable of carrying more than 30,000 people to safety. Australia was facing mounting criticism that it was not doing enough to help.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government had chartered a Turkish ship to carry hundreds of stranded Australians to Cyprus yesterday. But officials later found out they lost the vessel because it had been double-booked, forcing them to scramble for another way to evacuate hundreds of people who had lined up at the port to leave.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it believes it has firm bookings to evacuate 2,400 Australians by Sunday, and there were hopes that others might leave on British, US, Canadian and UN ships.
The Philippines said its efforts to find safe passage for around 30,000 Filipinos living in Lebanon were being hampered by a lack of funds.
"The problem is, we don't have ships where our nationals can board, unlike the US and French," Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Gilbert Asuque said.
Helen Tunnah, a spokeswoman for New Zealand's foreign ministry, said the government was drawing up plans to move up to 90 New Zealanders to Cyprus, but was unsure when the evacuations would start.
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