Some 4,500 British nationals will evacuate Lebanon through Cyprus within this week, British High Commissioner Peter Millet said on Tuesday.

There were "around 4,500 who we expect probably want to leave (Lebanon)," Millet told a press conference in the southern Cypriot coastal town of Limassol, but cautioned that the numbers were only estimates, according to local media reports.

Millet also said that the British authorities had brought extra personnel to Cyprus from London and Rome and had set up a rapid deployment team in the Lebanese capital Beirut to help facilitate the evacuation.

The British diplomat stressed that Cyprus was a transit facility and not a holding center.

"Our main objective is to get people through here and out of here as soon as possible, on the basis that the majority of people want to get back to the UK as soon as they can," he added.

Millet also noted that the evacuation capacity by helicopters was limited, adding "we will need to use sea transport as a preferred means of extracting people, just as the French and Italians and others have done."

Meanwhile, British Sovereign Bases in Cyprus Richard Lacey said that the British base at Akrotiri was preparing to provide temporary accommodation for a significant number of people who evacuate Lebanon.

Thousands of foreigners are fleeing Lebanon, which is under intense Israeli bombardments.

It takes about five hours to travel to Cyprus from Lebanon by sea.

The Cypriot government has geared up for a major influx of foreign nationals who get out of Lebanon.

Violence spiralled as Israel continued bombing Lebanese targets on a seventh day in a massive assault in the country after the Lebanese Shiite group Hizbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed eight on July 12.

Source: Xinhua