"We have a mandatory evacuation in place," New Orleans police chief Eddie Compass told reporters. "We have thousands of people who want to voluntarily evacuate at this time.

"We are using our resources right now to evacuate those who want to be evacuated," he said. "Once all the volunteer evacuations have taken place, then we'll concentrate our efforts and our forces to mandatorily evacuate individuals.

"We will use the minimal amount of force necessary to evacuate people out of this city to safety," the police chief added.

Compass did not give a figure for the number of people remaining in the city, but Lieutenant General Russel Honore, the military commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, put the figure at "significantly" fewer than than 10,000, in an interview Wednesday with ABC television.

New Orleans had a population of 485,000 before Hurricane Katrina while the greater metropolitan area had approximately 1.4 million residents. The mandatory evacuation order for New Orleans does not concern all areas of the city, which was ravaged by flooding following the August 29 storm.

Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday authorised police to forcibly remove survivors of Hurricane Katrina who refuse to leave but the authorities are clearly not keen to strongarm citizens whose lives have been torn asunder by the natural catastrophe.

In the Louisiana state capital of Baton Rouge, an official said National Guard troops would not compel residents to leave their homes.

"We personally will not force anyone out of their home," said Art Jones, a senior official at the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. "There's been no order I've seen from the military to force people out of their homes."

But while saying the state would not drag residents from the city, Jones made an impassioned plea for them to leave voluntarily and warned that state authorities may change tack if the health hazard grows in New Orleans.

A spokesman for the state Office of Homeland Security said the mayor could ask the state to help evict residents from New Orleans, but had not done so yet.

"Mayor Nagin would have to request (to the governor) that we support the operation to get people out of their homes. That request has not been made, and if it were, it is up to our discretion whether to support it," Mark Smith said.

In the Faubourg Marigny district of the city, Staff Sergeant Brad Lones of the 82nd Airborne Division, told worried residents: "We are not here to force anyone out.

"We are simply here to see if you are alright. If you need food, if you need water," he said.

But the owners of a nearby pub, "Cajun's," which stayed open through the storm, were told by police they had to close.

"They are telling us to leave voluntarily today or be forced to leave tomorrow," owner Joann Guidos told AFP. "We will be out later this evening. I am heartbroken, but what can I do."

"We are advising people to leave," said Detective Mason McGhee of the New Orleans police. "We are asking for their cooperation. We will be a little more forceful tomorrow. We will do whatever it takes to complete the task."

Many residents said police were using intimidation tactics saying there would be no water or food or protection.

"They are telling people there will be no food or water supplies for anyone who stays," said Henriette Nisbet, a Parisian who has lived in New Orleans for 10 years.

But Nisbet, who lives in a mauve and orange wooden house in the Bywater neighborhood, was adamant she would not go.

"I have two cats and a parakeet," she said. "I'm not going to leave them behind."

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