About 1,300 non-essential diplomats and family members of staff at 34 US embassies and consulates in 17 countries have either returned to Washington or have left their host countries for another "safe haven," the officials said.

"Short of the Persian Gulf War, I haven't seen this many," said Nancy Dolce, the director of the department's Family Liason Office which assists diplomats and their families in relocating. "And they're still arriving."

"We're not even in the first stage of the evacuations yet," said Matt Cook, another official in the office, noting that many diplomatic families not under orders to leave at once would wait until the end of the school year to depart.

Their comments appeared in the April edition of the department's in-house journal "State Magazine" which was released on Monday as Congress considers a nearly 66-million-dollar request to fund emergency evacuations of US officials.

They come amid unprecedented security precautions imposed at US diplomatic missions due to an Iraq-related jump in anti-American sentiment and increased terror threats, particularly in the Muslim world, as well as health precautions in Asia, notably in China and Vietnam, due to SARS.

Non-essential diplomats and embassy families at seven posts in five countries have been instructed to leave under so-called "ordered departure" programs, according to Lynn Cassel, a State Department spokeswoman.

In three of those countries -- Israel, Kuwait and Syria -- the orders are directly related to the war in Iraq. In Indonesia, the measure is due to terrorist threats and in one, the Central African Republic, the embassy has been closed due to continued unrest.

Twenty seven posts in 12 countries are now under so-called "authorized departure" programs which allow non-essential diplomats and family members to leave at Washington's expense should they choose to, Cassel said.

The programs at 14 of those embassies and consulates in nine countries -- Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen -- were implemented in response to the Iraq war.

The four US missions in Pakistan are covered because of terrorism fears and the eight missions in China, Hong Kong and Vietnam due to concerns about the spread of the atypical pneumonia known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) with at least 2,600 probable cases reported worldwide, and 100 deaths.

State Department officials acknowledge that implementing both ordered and authorized departure programs is costly as Washington must pay not only transportation costs but also per diem expenses for those evacuated.

In 2002, the department spent 2.6 million dollars to evacuate 13 diplomatic posts abroad, down slightly from 2001 when it spent 3.1 million to evacuate 16 posts, but a sharp increase from 2000 when eight posts were evacuated at a cost of 565,000 dollars.

The large 65.7 million-dollar request for evacuations now being considered by Congress takes into account changes in the threat environment around the world, officials said.

They stressed, though, that any money left over after September 30 will be returned to the Treasury department.

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