Fifty-one bodies have been found so far, but authorities said up to 200 people could have been killed on Wednesday in the hillside village of Sijeruk.

"Chances of finding anyone alive are slim," Umar Yulianto, a local government official involved with the rescue effort, told AFP by telephone.

Another official, Sutopo, said rescuers may give up the search on Saturday.

Search coordinator Arif Sudaryanto said about 160 people were still under the mud and rocks, putting the estimated death toll at about 200. Other local officials believed it was about 140.

Yulianto, who works at the welfare office in Banjarnegara district, explained that villagers had been cautioned about the impending disaster but had not taken the warnings seriously.

"They heard the signs and the village chief had warned them but they believed that they were safe," he said, noting that a cracking sound had preceded the pre-dawn landslide, which was triggered by days of heavy rainfall.

He said those who heeded the village chief's warning sought shelter at the mosque, located on higher ground, but some returned to their houses in the early hours before the torrent of mud and debris was unleashed.

The mosque, where about 30 people were reciting morning prayers, was buried along with about 100 homes in the hamlet.

"I guess some who stayed in the mosque believed that they were under divine protection -- just like in Aceh, where the only buildings standing after the tsunami were mosques," he said, referring to the December 2004 tsunami that devastated Indonesia's Aceh province.

Hundreds of rescue workers used backhoes and hand tools to dig into the deep wall of mud. As they unearthed the remains of the victims, they showed each body to villagers watching the efforts from behind a police line.

Residents cried as they identified the bodies of their loved ones and neighbors.

Sixteen victims were buried in a mass grave on Thursday.

The landslide in Sijeruk, 370 kilometres (230 miles) east of Jakarta, is the second disaster in Java island this week after flash floods in neighbouring East Java province.

Both were caused by days of heavy rains and, according to activists, deforestation.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday met with residents displaced by the floods that devastated villages late Sunday and killed at least 77 people.

He promised the government would rebuild the flooded zones and help survivors, and to investigate claims that the disaster was caused by deforestation.

"We will look into the cause of these floods and landslides, whether it is due to deforestation," he said.

Environmentalists blamed the disasters on massive logging and land conversion for farming on Java, one of the world's most densely populated islands, and called on the government to take action.

But Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban has denied that the landslide in Sijeruk was caused by logging and blamed unstable earth in the area.

"The truth is, I saw the forest from the helicopter and I didn't see any signs of logging because this forest is protected," he told reporters at the landslide site.

Flooding and landslides are not unusual during Indonesia's rainy season.

In 2003 more than 200 people died when flash floods tore through Bahorok, a popular riverside resort in North Sumatra province. Some officials denied deforestation was the cause of that tragedy.

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