Caretaker premier Saad Hariri on Sunday held phone talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Hariri and Erdogan "discussed the ongoing efforts to evacuate Lebanese citizens from Libya," the premier's press office announced in a communiqué.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has hoped that Lebanese-Syrian ties would be similar to relations between Damascus and Ankara.

Last week, Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, praised booming ties with one-time foe Syria, saying that a joint dam project at the border between the two neighbors would further strengthen cooperation.

Israeli missions in Turkey have stopped working while security measures are implemented in response to threats by Hizbullah, an Israeli diplomatic source said Friday.

"Officially, we are not closed, but practically we are not functioning... because of security problems," the source told Agence France Presse.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday "agreed to exert all efforts possible for the stability, security and prosperity of Lebanon," Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported.

Erdogan was in Syria to take part in a landmark ceremony for a joint "Friendship Dam" to be built over the Orontes river at the border between the two countries.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Tuesday to meet his people's "desire for change" as he voiced support for democratic reform in the whole Middle East.

Erdogan also postponed an upcoming visit to Egypt because of the turmoil gripping the country.

The United States started organizing Sunday the evacuation of its nationals from Egypt as an angry anti-government revolt raged into a sixth day amid increasing lawlessness and mass jail breaks.

"The U.S. embassy in Cairo informs U.S. citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the department of state is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Europe," an embassy statement said, as other countries issued travel warnings and tourists scrambled for flights out.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman stressed that U.N. Security Council members have expressed their keenness on seeing a Lebanese commitment to international resolutions following the formation of a new government led by Caretaker PM Najib Miqati.

Feltman told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in remarks published Friday that his talks with French officials in Paris touched on the developments in Lebanon. Security Council members have expressed to him their keenness on Lebanon’s commitment to resolutions 1701 and 1757, he said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday held phone talks with Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani on the political crisis in Lebanon, Turkey's foreign ministry announced in a statement.

The two men "exchanged points of view regarding the crisis in Lebanon and efforts made to form a new government."

Turkey on Wednesday urged Lebanese factions for restraint in the country's political turmoil, warning of broader implications on regional stability.

"We call on all parties to refrain from violence and to act with common sense and within democratic legitimacy," a foreign ministry statement said, a day after protests against the appointment of a Hizbullah-backed premier turned violent.

A meeting that was scheduled to be held on Sunday between France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar over the political crisis in Lebanon was postponed over conflicting agendas, French foreign ministry sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

In remarks published Monday, the sources said the Paris meeting is considered “postponed and not cancelled.”