In pictures: Syrian refugee numbers rise

A welcome sign at Azraq Syrian Refugee Campnear Al Azraq, 80km (50 miles) east of Amman, on 1 September 2013.

More than two million Syrians are now refugees, with the total going up by a million in six months, the UN says.

Syrian refugees women stand outside their tents, at a temporary refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese town of Marj near the border with Syria, Lebanon

At least 700,000 have fled to Lebanon and more Syrians are now displaced than any other nationality, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) says.

Syrian refugees pass through the Turkish Cilvegozu gate border, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2013.

The UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday: "Syria is haemorrhaging women, children and men who cross borders often with little more than the clothes on their backs."

A Syrian-Kurdish refugee woman hangs out her laundry on a clothesline outside a tent provided by the UNHCR at the Quru Gusik refugee camp, east of Arbil

About half of those forced to leave are children, UN agencies estimate, with about three-quarters of them under 11.

An aerial view shows the Zaatari refugee camp, near the Jordanian city of Mafraq - 18 July 2013 file

Many of those forced to leave their homes have taken refuge in neighbouring countries, but 130,000 of them are now living in a three-square-mile piece of the desolate Jordanian desert - home to the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp.

Syrian refugee, Khadija Mohammed washes clothes inside her tent, at a temporary refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese town of Faour near the border with Syria, Lebanon.

Lebanon has received the highest number of refugees, even though it is the smallest of Syria's neighbours and one of the least able to cope.

Syrian refugees carry their belongings after entering Turkish territory at the Cilvegozu border gate, in Turkey- 3 September 2013

There is now thought to be one Syrian refugee in Lebanon to roughly every six Lebanese. Jordan and Turkey have taken in the second and third highest numbers respectively.

Picture taken on 27 August shows Kurd refugees from Syria sitting outside tents provided by the UNHCR at the Quru Gusik refugee camp, east of Arbil

One of the biggest single waves of refugees occurred in mid-August, when thousands from north-eastern Syria poured over the border into Iraqi Kurdistan.