All Kiwis now out of Libya - McCully

All New Zealanders who wanted to leave Libya had now left, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.

He said other countries had helped.

"We thank our friends the British Government, the United States Government, the Irish Government, and the Canadian Government, who provided extraordinary assistance to help evacuate the remaining New Zealanders from Libya."

During the weekend the remaining two New Zealanders departed Libya; one on a UK-charter flight to London, the other from Benghazi to Malta on the HMS Cumberland.

The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry helped 29 New Zealanders leave. Five were evacuated to Malta by the British Government on HMS Cumberland; one took a United States-chartered ferry to Malta; two were evacuated on an Irish-charter flight to Ireland; three took advantage of British-chartered evacuation flights, and the remainder departed by commercial airline.

Four New Zealanders said they wanted to stay, Mr McCully said.

- NZPA