The tourists were to be picked up in the city of Merida by two Boeing 747s which would fly out Wednesday, a spokesman said.

He added that two other Boeing 747s would also be leaving Merida Wednesday and Thursday for London with 980 British tourists on board, and a Boeing 767 was expected soon to make a similar trip to repatriate a group of Belgians.

The Britons and Belgians had booked Mexican vacations through subsidiaries of TUI, the German travel group that also owns Nouvelles Frontieres, the spokesman explained.

An estimated 38,000 foreign tourists found themselves trapped in woeful conditions in and around the Mexican resort of Cancun after Hurricane Wilma struck Monday.

Other French tour companies said they were working to repatriate smaller groups of French tourists who had been vacationing in the region.