The HMS Cumberland frigate had left the rebel-held port of Benghazi in eastern Libya on Thursday carrying 207 passengers but was forced to travel at a reduced speed because of the rough weather in the Mediterranean.

The vessel carried citizens from more than 20 countries -- part of a vast multinational workforce in Libya that includes oil industry executives from Europe and the United States and migrant workers from Africa and Asia.

Maltese authorities were expecting a second ship carrying more than 2,000 Chinese workers to arrive on the island later on Saturday. Thousands of Chinese have already been ferried from Libya to the Greek island of Crete.

A US-chartered ferry carrying hundreds of people from Tripoli including American diplomats docked in Malta on Friday after braving 20-foot (six-metre) waves, with at least two evacuees taken away on stretchers by paramedics.

The US State Department has stepped up rescue operations for US nationals as it increases the pressure on Moamer Kadhafi, with sanctions unveiled by Washington on Friday against the Libyan leader and his four children.

The US has also announced the closure of its embassy in Tripoli.

A second privately-chartered ferry from Libya with hundreds of evacuees on board also arrived in Malta on Friday, along with two German warships set to take away German citizens airlifted out of Libya earlier this week.

Britain, which has faced heavy criticism for its sluggish response to the escalating crisis, scrambled the HMS York to Libya from Gibraltar on Friday to rescue more British nationals from the rapidly disintegrating regime.

Thousands of Egyptian migrant workers have also streamed across Libya's western border with Tunisia. The Red Crescent humanitarian organisation has warned it can no longer house them and has run out of mattresses and blankets.

The International Organisation of Migration in Geneva says tens of thousands have fled across the border into Tunisia and is appealing for millions of dollars (euros) in international aid to help cope with the emergency.

Hundreds of foreigners including Egyptians, Iraqis and Syrians have also been fleeing from Libya into Algeria through the Sahara Desert.

On Friday, the NATO military alliance has offered to help evacuation efforts and the European Union said 3,600 EU nationals remained stranded in Libya.

Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler, has already evacuated hundreds of its citizens and a military ship that loaded 245 evacuees in the Libyan port of Misrata was expected to arrive in Sicily later on Saturday.

Several countries with large migrant populations in Libya including India, Nigeria, the Philippines and South Korea have also begun evacuating thousands of their citizens this week on ferries and planes.

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