WASHINGTON: The United States has hired a cruise ship to evacuate US citizens from Beirut starting on Tuesday, according to the Pentagon.

An American Navy destroyer, the USS Gonzales will escort the ship –- Orient Queen –- for security reasons.

The Orient Queen can carry about 750 passengers for the approximate five-hour crossing from Beirut to Cyprus, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

The State Department has said there are about 25,000 Americans in Lebanon, but so far only 8,000 had registered with the embassy as living in Lebanon or travelling there. Several hundred have expressed interest in being evacuated.

Mr Whitman said the helicopter carrier USS Iwo Jima and other ships, in the Red Sea, have wrapped up their involvement in exercises with Jordan, but did not make clear what role they might play in an evacuation.