The Pentagon said 4,400 Americans had escaped from Lebanon on Friday by sea and air, the largest single day total to date in the operation to save foreign nationals trapped in the relentless cross-fire between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.

The amphibious transport USS Trenton, the biggest ship so far involved in the evacuation, deposited a further 1,800 people at the Cypriot port of Limassol in the early hours of Saturday.

Nearly 200 non-essential United Nations staff and their families walked ashore from a boat chartered by the world body.

British and Australian servicemen also stepped up efforts to rescue their nationals as Israel announced plans to allow aid agencies to deliver food and medicine to thousands of displaced people in Lebanon.

"In the next couple of days we are really going to start moving a lot of people through here," said Australia's High Commissioner in Cyprus, Garth Hunt, at the port of Larnaca.

"As far as we concerned, nobody should have to fend for themselves," he said after welcoming ashore nearly 350 Australians transported by a Maltese catamaran contracted by the Canberra government.

The British government, in an announcement carried by the BBC, said Saturday would be the last scheduled British maritime evacuation of U.K. passport-holders from Beirut.

It urged those wanting to leave to gather at a conference hall in the Lebanese capital between 8 am and 4 pm local time.

MAYHEM

Evacuees coming ashore described scenes of mayhem back in Lebanon, where many had been holidaying or visiting family when the Israeli rockets began falling 11 days ago.

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