Military helicopters began evacuating Americans and Europeans from Liberia's besieged capital at dawn yesterday, ferrying Westerners out of embassy compounds to a French ship waiting in the Atlantic.

　　The evacuations came as Liberian soldiers reported more fighting on the western edge of the city, where rebels were trying to push into the capital to oust President Charles Taylor. Explosions sounded in the distance.

　　The first helicopters took off from the white-walled, barbed-wire topped compound of the European Union.

　　Aid agency workers, ducking to avoid debris sent flying from the twirling blades, ran down a rocky hillside and climbed into French military Cougar helicopters.

　　European Union forces stood guard with heavy weapons on the fern and palm-overgrown hillside above the Atlantic Ocean, as helicopters spun off over the steel-gray Atlantic.

　　"We can't work, and we had to leave," said Isabelle deBourning, of Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), running for the helicopter.

　　A total of 91 international residents of Liberia were to be evacuated from the EU com-pound, said David Parker, acting head of the EU mission in Liberia.

　　They included foreign staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross and UN agencies.

　　The European Union operates the water plants for this war-ravaged city of 1 million, now crowded with refugees, and would try to keep a core staff in position as long as possible, Parker said.

　　Lebanese families, who make up much of the merchant class of west Africa, also were expected to fly out from the European compound.

　　Next door at the US Embassy, about 100 Americans were awaiting evacuation, after gathering overnight.

　　When most Americans left, Ambassador John Blaney and a coterie of Marine guards were to remain behind at the embassy, US authorities said.

　　At the EU compound, European troop reinforcements piled out of each helicopter that landed to fly out the foreign civilians. Troops in green camouflage jumped out with bazookas and heavy machine guns, stripped down and ready for assembly.

　　The evacuation had been planned at least since the weekend, when rebels fighting to oust Taylor made at least two pushes into the city.

　　Liberian forces and local radio reported more fighting on the west side at dawn, as the evacuations began. Explosions sounded occasionally from that direction.

　　Liberians, residents of a state founded by freed American slaves, came out of their shacks and watched silently as the helicopters flew back and forth across the seascape in front of them.