A total of 600 people were to leave Beirut for the Larnaca port of Cyprus, the French Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.

"French authorities organize today a new operation of repatriation from Lebanon," French Foreign Ministry's spokesman Denis Simonneau said.

He said that some 600 people, including 400 French nationals, were to leave the port of Beirut boarding a vessel BPC Mistral of the French national navy heading for the Cypriote port of Larnaca.

The French nationals are to be carried to Paris on Friday afternoon by flights chartered by the Foreign Ministry.

This new operation brought the number of repatriated people by the French authorities to 13,600, including 10,500 French nationals.

Among some 17,000 French nationals registered at the French consulates in Lebanon, some 14,000 were in the country hit by conflicts between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. There were also 6,000 French people passing by Lebanon. About 90 percent of French nationals in Lebanon have dual nationalities.