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      Special Report: Foreigners evacuated from Lebanon

Evacuees from Lebanon disembark from a Spanish plane at the Torrejon military airbase, just outside of Madrid, Saturday July 15, 2006. A plane with 116 Spaniards and ten foreigners _ four Italians, two Dutch, one Briton, one American, one Moroccan and one Egyptian_ evacuated from Lebanon arrived at Madrid's military Torrejon airport.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)

    CANBERRA, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government is considering how to evacuate citizens from Lebanon, either by road or sea, according to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

    Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio on Monday that there will be no Australian military option to evacuate citizens from the Middle East Country.

    One of the evacuation options is "chartering three buses and trying to get up, in particular, the coastal road into Syria," he said. "Secondly, there is the option of chartering a vessel."

    But he pointed out that people could be in even greater danger on the open road or in a port under attack from Israeli warplanes.

    "The problem is that, first of all, we need to be confident the buses would be safe or relatively safe. Secondly, with a vessel you obviously have to use a port and ports are being attacked," he said.

    Australia's evacuation plans will involve talks with Israel, he said.

    "We need to talk with the Israelis without, of course, ... having any aspirations that the Israelis would tell us what their military plans are," he added. Enditem