International observers said on Sunday that 169 bodies of those killed in the Malaysian Airline MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine have been removed from the crash site and loaded into refrigerated trains nearby.

Michael Bociurkiw, the spokesman of the Organisation of Security and Corporation (OSCE) mission to Ukraine, the organisation in charge of investigating the crash, said the train cars were expected to be taken to Ukrainian - controlled territories such as Kharkiv, where they could be processed.

"Today was quite a significant development in the sense that we were able to, under very good security, visit the village of Torez, near the crash site. There, we went to the railway station and at the railway station there were several cars, three or four which were refrigerated. We were told these cars hold victims of the MH17 crash," he told reporters gathered in Kiev, by phone.

According to Bociurkiw, the body bags had been numbered by pro-Russian rebels, who told him they loaded 169 bodies into the train.

The OSCE team, however, did not enter the train cars to investigate because they didn't have safety equipment to wear.

Walking through the crash site while speaking over the phone to journalists in Kiev, Bociurkiw suggested that some bodies might never be found.

"This is an area which was exposed to the most intense heat. We do not see any bodies here. It appears that some have been vaporised, not only bodies but also parts. The heat must have been absolutely intense," he said.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council Spokesperson Andriy Lysenko said 196 bodies had been recovered and the search area was expanded.

Rebels said the bodies recovered from the crash site would remain in refrigerated train cars at a station in the rebel-held town of Torez, 15 kilometres (9 miles) away, until the arrival of an international aviation delegation.

They also said they have recovered the black boxes from downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and would hand them over to the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Ukraine and the separatists accuse each other of firing a surface-to-air missile Thursday at Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur some 33,000 feet (10,000 metres) above the battlefields of

eastern Ukraine.

Both deny shooting down the plane. All those onboard the flight - 283 passengers and 15 crew - were killed.

AP TELEVISION

1. Wide of news conference

2. Cutaway of journalists

3. Close up of screen showing picture of Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) special monitoring mission to Ukraine

4. STILL OF Bociurkiw on screen, AUDIO: (English) Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine (speaking on phone)

"Okay, well, today was quite a significant development in the sense that we were able to, under very good security, visit the village of Torez, near the crash site. There, we went to the railway station and at the railway station there were several cars, three or four which were refrigerated. We were told these cars hold victims of the MH17 crash."

5. Close up of sign reading (English) "Ukraine Crisis media centre"

6. Cutaway of journalists

7. STILL OF Bociurkiw, AUDIO: (English) Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine (speaking on phone)

"Right. Okay so we were told there are 169 - one-six-nine (bodies). Because of the conditions of the train, I mean you need professional protective equipment to go in there, and the stench was absolutely overwhelming. I don't want to be too gruesome but it is a very, very difficult scene to watch. We were told that, for the time being, those cars will be stationary. And that they were wondering when experts will be arriving to start processing the bodies. But I think the kind of thinking is that the cars should be taken to Ukrainian-controlled territories such as Kharkiv and they can be processed there."

8. Cutaway of cameraman

9. Wide of news conference

10. STILL OF Bociurkiw, AUDIO: (English) Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine (speaking on phone)

"We're looking at the field where the engines have come down. This is an area which was exposed to the most intense heat. We do not see any bodies here. It appears that some have been vaporised, not only bodies but also parts. The heat must have been absolutely intense."

11. Andriy Lysenko, Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council Spokesperson, speaking

12. Cutaway cameras

13. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andriy Lysenko, Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council Spokesperson:

"The bodies of 196 people have been found and the search operation committee has expanded the search area from 25 to 34 square kilometres."

14. Cutaway of cameramen

15. Cutaway of journalists

16. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andriy Lysenko, Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council Spokesperson:

"All the bodies that have been directly under the sun have started to decompose. It is necessary to collect everything as fast as possible and remove them because it is becoming a danger to the civilian population of the area."

17. Cutaway of cameraman

18. Wide of news conference

Ukraine blamed on Sunday pro-Russia rebels for stalling the recovery mission of the Malaysia Airlines plane crashed last month in eastern Ukraine.

Andriy Lysenko, Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council spokesperson, said that rebels had prohibited the use of an unmanned drone at the crash site, operated by OSCE (The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) monitors in Ukraine.

"The use of the unmanned drone would give an opportunity to quickly inspect the field and overlook the place from a wider plan, as well as find new evidence. It can also find mines and detect the location of the militia," Lysenko said.

"Also, the drone could prove that the artillery fire was launched by terrorists," he added.

The work of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitors and group of the Dutch and Australian experts at the crash site has been postponed for days due to heavy fighting between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian Army.

Lysenko said that OSCE team had to stop their work on Saturday because of heavy gunfire about two kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the crash site.

This came after the international team of investigators were allowed on Thursday through a checkpoint at the village of Rozsypne leading to the crash site of Flight MH17 to get a first look at where it was brought down by a missile two weeks ago.

Thursday's drive took the convoy of investigators and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) officials from the rebel-held city of Donetsk through the town of Debaltseve, which was earlier this week retaken by the government, and later back into rebel territory.

The OSCE mission will be launched in full speed on Monday, with over five teams working on the site, according to Lysenko.

It has been estimated that up to 80 bodies - out of 288 passengers on the downed MH17 flight - are still at the site.

AP TELEVISION

1. Andriy Lysenko, National Security and Defence Council spokesman at news conference

2. Lysenko speaking

3. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andriy Lysenko, National Security and Defence Council spokesman:

"The Australian experts were not allowed to use an unmanned drone to inspect the site, as OSCE experts told us in their statement. Later on, the mission representatives were forced to stop their work, as Alexander Hug (Deputy Chief monitor of OSCE Special Mission to Ukraine) said, the work could not go on because of artillery fire which was carried out by the terrorists about two kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the crash site."

4. Journalist asking question

5. Lysenko behind camera screen

6. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andriy Lysenko, National Security and Defence Council spokesman:

"The ban of using the unmanned drone, imposed by the terrorists, shows that rebels are not interested in an objective investigation. The use of the unmanned drone would give an opportunity to quickly inspect the field and overlook the place from a wider plan, as well as find new evidence. It can also find mines and detect the location of the militia. Also, the drone could prove that the artillery fire was launched by terrorists."

7. Lysenko speaking next to map

8. Close up of map showing fighting areas

9. News conference

The chief of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, claimed on Friday that three Russian servicemen crossed the border into Ukraine with a heavy missile launcher and fired at the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it flew miles above the country's battlefield.

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko told reporters the SBU has been able to identify "a place on the border where a Buk (a heavy missile launcher) crossed into the territory of Ukraine before the attack" from records of conversations between pro-Russia separatists.

He added that those conversations "clearly confirmed" that the crew of a Buk missile system "entered from the territory of Russia and were Russian servicemen."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the National Security and Defence Council said Ukrainian forces did not carry out any actions aimed at "hitting targets in the air".

Andriy Lysenko added that "an inventory of aircraft systems and missile launchers located on Ukrainian territory concluded that all missiles are in stock. The Ukrainian aviation did not work in the area of the air crash and it generally does not work at such altitude".

The Ukrainian government in Kiev, the separatist pro-Russia rebels they are fighting and the Russia government that Ukraine accuses of supporting the rebels all deny shooting the passenger plane down. Moscow also denies backing the rebels.

The attack on Thursday afternoon killed 298 people from nearly a dozen nations - including holiday-makers, students and a large contingent of scientists heading to an AIDS conference in Australia.

Andriy Sybiga, a Ukraine Foreign Ministry representative said 181 bodies had been found as of Friday afternoon.

AP TELEVISION

1. Wide of Security Service chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko during news conference

2. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, Head of Security Service of Ukraine:

"Two things have been ascertained (from records of separatists' conversations). The first one is that we showed a place on the border where a Buk (a heavy missile launcher) crossed into the territory of Ukraine before the attack. And terrorists clearly confirmed that the crew of this Buk entered from the territory of Russia and were Russian servicemen."

3. Journalists

4. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, Head of Security Service of Ukraine:

"It is most important for us to get from the Russian side the names of all three crew members - Russian servicemen - who directly managed a Buk anti-aircraft missile system and directly pressed the trigger and launched a missile against a civilian passenger aircraft. We emphasise this is a key detail in the Ukrainian, and now international, investigation."

5. Wide of Nalyvaichenko presenting evidence of what he says is Russian implication in air crash on the screen

6. Mid of journalists

7. Wide of Andriy Lysenko, National Security and Defence Council spokesman arriving at news conference

8. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andriy Lysenko, National Security and Defence Council spokesman:

"We would like to emphasise that the (Ukrainian) anti-terrorist operation forces did not execute any actions aimed at hitting targets in the air. An inventory of aircraft systems and missile launchers located on Ukrainian territory concluded that all missiles are in stock. The Ukrainian aviation did not work in the area of the air crash and it generally does not work at such altitude."

9. Cutaway of cameramen

10. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Andriy Sybiga, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry representative:

"As of today, 181 bodies have been detected. Indeed terrorists (separatists) do resist, but in spite of this the rescue services are working at the (crash) site."

11. Various of journalists