The US State Department said Tuesday it had dropped a plan to make Americans reimburse the government for the transport, but Atiyeh said he and others were asked to sign promissory notes to pay for the trip before they could leave.

An estimated 8,000 of the 25,000 US citizens in Lebanon want to be evacuated. A total of 320 Americans - mostly children, students and the elderly - left Tuesday night by military helicopter and a Norwegian car ferry, which also carried hundreds of Swedes, Norwegians and others.

The ferry docked at the Cypriot port of Larnaca shortly before dawn Wednesday.

"I have regrets, yes. But if I didn't leave now, I didn't know when I was going to get another chance," said Michael May, 21, a student from Norwalk, Conn., who had been in Beirut for about four weeks.

Phone calls went out to those chosen to leave on the Orient Queen early Wednesday, telling them to gather in northern Beirut to board buses. By 7 a.m., about 400 people were at the meeting place; some families went even earlier right to the port, confused on where to go.

There were tears as relatives dropped off departing Americans, many of Lebanese descent, as well as nervous moments. A woman waiting to have her passport checked burst into tears when a loud explosion from an Israeli airstrike shook Beirut.

"I'm so relieved, there are no words to explain. I'm very thankful," said Elizabeth Kassab, 45, sitting on the deck of the Queen Orient, smoking a cigarette. "But I'm still nervous, and I won't relax until we get out of here."

On Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador pledged that by the end of the week the evacuation would be ramped up to 1,000 Americans a day. He said the evacuation's slow start was intended to safeguard Americans.

"We at the embassy don't have the experience to move a lot of people. Luckily, the U.S. government does," Feltman said. "Security and safe travel were what's on our minds."

Part of what delayed the Orient Queen was Israel's blockade of Lebanon's ports, part of its campaign of retribution after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12 in a cross-border raid. Lebanon's only international airport has been shut since Thursday when Israeli jets bombed all three runways.

The Orient Queen had been on a cruise of the eastern Mediterranean when Israel's military campaign began, and Israeli ships detained it Tuesday from sailing in from Cyprus because of Lebanese on board.

Ron Gidor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said it took a "stupendous amount of coordination" to arrange for ships to evacuate foreigners. Speaking to the British Broadcasting Corp., he said Israel had been in contact with 20 countries.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman also said the Beirut port was working at a higher capacity than normal, making it challenging to get ships from various countries in and out.