Three air force C-130 transport aircraft, assigned to evacuate Malaysians stranded in troubled Egypt, will mount around-the-clock operation to bring them out of the country, chief of defence forces Jenl Azizan Ariffin said.

He expects the evacuation to take five days.

The Malaysians would first be brought to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he said, adding that the operations would begin as soon as the three aircraft arrived there.

"It will be a 24-hour non-stop operation to evacuate about 14,000 Malaysians there," he told reporters at the Defence Ministry today.

The three aircraft are scheduled to leave for Jeddah today.

Azizan said he met Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak this morning to discuss about the evacuation process.

Azizan later visited the air force base in Subang where military men were loading foodstuff and other supplies into the aircraft.

Speaking to reporters at the base, Azizan said the evacuation would be carried out in two phases.

The first phase would involve evacuation of students from Egypt to Jeddah by air using the three aircraft, and by sea, to be mounted by the auxiliary ship, Bunga Mas 5, which would set sail from the Gulf of Aden and expected to arrive at the Adabiah Port on Saturday.

He said that the second phase, involving the movements of Malaysians from Jeddah to Malaysia would be coordinated by the National Security Council and Wisma Putra.

He expects up to 2,000 students can be evacuated to Jeddah a day.

- Bernama