Aust consults Israel on Lebanon evacuation

The Minister says the Government is considering hiring three buses to transport Australians to Syria, and may also charter a boat.

Mr Downer says a small number of Australians could be evacuated from Lebanon soon.

But he has warned it could be safer not to move the Australians.

"So that if we do decide to implement those plans, we will have some confidence of the situation being a little more secure than it might otherwise might be if we made a random rush for the border or just brought a ship into a port, which was likely to be shelved - I mean that is clearly completely stupid to do that," he said.

"It could be even more unsafe out on the open road or in a port which is being attacked by Israeli jets, so people have to weigh up the fact that having being caught in Lebanon, there are no easy and very safe options available to them - common sense tells you that," he said.

The Government says it is considering using a ferry chartered by the French Government to evacuate Australians to the island of Cyprus.

Several European countries have announced plans to evacuate their citizens by land to Syria or by ferry to Cyprus since Israeli air strikes pounded deep craters in Beirut airport runways last week, making air travel impossible.

Washington says it is also making plans to evacuate thousands of its citizens trapped in Lebanon.

Dance troupe

Meanwhile, members of an Australian dance troupe stuck in Beirut are getting increasingly worried about their future.

The Sydney Armenian Youth Dance Troupe was stopping in Beirut for a few days on its way home after competing in Armenia.

The 48 dancers and 30 parents have not left their hotel in Beirut for four days.

Spokesman Assadour Hadjian says while an Australian official has visited them and said there is some planning for evacuation going on, he does not know if it is by ferry or bus.

"Day by day the bomb sound is coming closer," he said.

"That's why we're getting much more nervous and I hope the Australian Government has some plan to withdraw us from here."

More Australians caught up in the violence in Lebanon returned home last night.

Most had managed to escape Lebanon by car into Syria before the border was closed.