The evacuation of Indians from strife-torn Libya is going smoothly and over 3,500 people would have returned home by tomorrow, external affairs minister S M Krishna said here today.

"The evacuation of Indians who are wanting to come back is going smoothly. And so far by tomorrow, I think 3500 persons would have been evacuated from Tripoli," Krishna told reporters outside Parliament.

He said the government was using commercial flights, chartered flights and shipping lines to evacuate stranded Indians.

"And we hope that we should be able to pursue this evacuation," Krishna said.

Another batch of 331 Indians from Libya arrived early today, taking the total number of people evacuated by the four Air India special flights to 1083.

To a question on people's movement spreading to other countries, Krishna said India was "closely watching" the developments in such nations and will respond "depending upon how the situation develops."

"Well...we are not going to speculate as to how this revolution, resentment, revolt is going to impact other countries," .

"But the external affairs ministry through our missions....we are closely watching the situation...monitoring the situation...and depending upon how the situation develops.. we respond," he said.

On the fate of the Indians in a ship hijacked by Somalian pirates, Krishna said the external affairs ministry "will certainly get in touch with our Navy and try to find a solution."

Krishna said the government was in touch with other countries who are also affected by this menace and India will try to checkmate this menace with support from other countries.

"They are international menace and well I hope...they will not resort to any such drastic measures because that is going to be very harmful," he said.

"Let us hope that they will see the path of reason and sanity and will not harm those have been taken into captivity," he said.

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IAF transport aircraft may be sent to airlift Indians

Defence minister A K Antony on Tuesday said Indian Air Force's transport aircraft could be sent to Libya to evacuate Indian citizens stranded there if the need arises.

"Navy has also sent its ships. Air Force also is ready. Whether it is Libya or other capitals, if the government wants their service, they can also be sent," he said

The defence minister was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony to flag-in Indian Army's expedition to the South Pole

The IAF has kept its IL-76 aircraft on stand-by mode for the operations at different air fields in the country. An IL-76 can carry more than 300 passengers at one go.

The Navy has already sent two ships to Libya including the amphibious vessel INS Jalashwa and Delhi-class destroyer INS Delhi to help in evacuating 18,000 Indian citizens there.

On the evacuation effort by India, Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said, "Evacuation is taking place from Tripoli and Benghazi and the external affairs ministry has hired ferry boats going to Alexandria, Egypt (for evacuation).

"18,000 is a large number and eventually we would be pressed to evacuate. The numbers we can carry is substantial

On Jalashwa we can carry 1500 in one ferry, so I see there would be enough work to be done," he said.

The Navy chief was responding to queries on the Libyan evacuation efforts on the sidelines of a two-day hydrographers' conference.

Air India is also operating two flights daily to Tripoli and has sought permission to land in the interior parts of Libya where over 1,000 Indians are believed to be stranded.

Already more than 1,000 passengers have been brought back to the country in the special flights operated by the national carrier.