Thousands of evacuees fleeing Israel's bombardment of Lebanon arrived in Cyprus today.
Around 1,000 Americans disembarked overnight in the port of Larnaca from USS Nashvilleafter being rescued by US troops.
About the same number arrived at the port of Limassol on a cruise liner chartered by the US government.
Cypriot Foreign Minister Georgios Lillikas said his country, with a population of just under a million, was struggling to deal with the crisis, and he repeated his call to Nicosia's European Union partners to help share the burden.
"Cyprus is the only country in the EU which is offering its facilities to this extent. Because of our size we don't have the ability to respond to the numbers of citizens of third countries," he told state radio.
"We are in a dilemma as a government either to continue our humanitarian efforts with the means we have or do what others do and not allow non-Europeans to use Cyprus and not offer services to leave," he said.
"We would rather that never happened," Lillikas said.
He said Cyprus was bracing for 20,000 Canadians and 1,000 Indians shortly among many other evacuees.
Officials say they expect an average of 4,000 people arriving each day, putting great strain on resources at the peak summer tourist season.