At least 81 bodies have been retrieved from the wreckage of the Kenya Airways jetliner which crashed in a violent storm over the weekend, airline officials said yesterday.

Addressing a news conference in Nairobi , Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer Titus Naikuni said the process of identification was underway and repatriation of the remains back to their families would start once recovery efforts are complete.

"As of this morning, the remains of 81 passengers have been recovered from the site," said Naikuni who visited the scene of the crash on Tuesday.

"The process of identification of the remains is still underway and once complete, the process of repatriating the remains back to their families will begin," he said.

Naikuni appealed for patience from the relatives, saying the state of the bodies would make identification difficult and slow." Cameroonian government representatives have communicated that the mortuary facilities have sufficient capacity to handle this process," he said.

He said victim identification experts from Kenya Airways including forensic and DNA personnel from Britain are in the process of assessing the state of the mortuary facilities.

Kenyan Airways flight which crashed at the weekend appears to have plunged into mangrove swamps near the city of Douala, minutes after taking off.

Naikuni clarified that only flight data recorder has beenrecovered from the crash site but search is still underway tolocate the voice recorder.

Investigators hope the recorders will explain why the plane stopped emitting signals after an initial distress call.

The plane was fitted with a device which should have continued to automatically emit signals for a further two days.The lack of signals meant that it took rescuers 36 hours to find the missing plane, which was partially submerged in water and shielded from the view by the tree canopy.

People from 27 nations had been travelling on board flight KQ507 which took off in heavy rain en route to the Kenyan capital,Nairobi, on Saturday.

Both Kenyan and Cameroonian officials have admitted that there were no chances of finding any survivors.

"At this time, it seems unlikely that there are any survivors.It appears the aircraft broke up on impact. This inevitably and distressingly means that the bodies on board have also been badly damaged. This will make the identification process more complicated and time consuming," said Naikuni.

He said the airline would pay for families to travel to Douala for the identification process and would also cover funeral expenses.

"So far, we have relayed the news to the next of kin of 96 families and we are trying to reach the families of the other 18 passengers. We will relay this information to the respective embassies to help us locate and contact their next of kin,"he said.

"The total number of travel approvals processed so far are 59. Twelve family members are leaving on this afternoon's flight." The aircraft was just six months old and part of a new fleet bought by the airline which has a good safety record.

In January 2000, one of its planes crashed into the sea after taking off from Abidjan, killing 169 passengers. Ten people survived.