About 500 of the passengers on board the two vessels were foreigners from 25 different countries, nearly half of them Vietnamese, the foreign ministry said.
Nationals of Bosnia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, Syria, Tunisia, Jordan and the United States were also on board the navy ferry and frigate which were en route to Marmaris on Turkey`s Mediterranean coast.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said 42 countries had requested Turkish help to repatriate nationals caught in the bloody unrest sweeping the North African country, Anatolia news agency reported.
"Our efforts are continuing and we are doing our best to help both our nationals and the nationals of other countries," Davutoglu said.
Since February 19 Turkey has evacuated about 14,200 Turks and almost 600 foreign nationals from Libya, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Ankara has sent dozens of planes, including military cargo aircraft, and several ferries, while also transporting nationals to neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt by road and then flying them home.
Erdogan said Saturday about 30,000 Turks were based in Libya prior to the eruption of deadly unrest last week, updating an earlier figure of 25,000.
Most of them are employees of some 200 Turkish companies involved in construction projects in Libya amounting to more than $15 billion (11 billion euros).
A Turkish worker was shot dead at his construction site near Tripoli and another died of a heart attack amid the unrest. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
