Officials in the hillside village of Sijeruk in Central Java planned to halt the search for bodies at 4 pm (0900 GMT) Sunday, said Commissioner Budi Wartoyo.

"As of midday today, we have found 18 more bodies. Almost every area in the village has been dug up. We believe we can conclude the search efforts by today," Wartoyo told AFP.

Wartoyo heads police operations in Banjarnegara district which oversees the village.

Officials on Saturday revised the estimated death toll down from around 200 to about 70 after scores of people initially reported missing were accounted for.

Tonnes of mud slammed into Sijeruk before dawn on Wednesday following days of heavy rain. Hundreds of rescuers have used backhoes and hand tools to search for the missing.

The landslide in Sijeruk, 370 kilometres (230 miles) east of Jakarta, was the second disaster in days on Java island.

Flash floods killed at least 77 people and swept away hundreds of houses in several villages in neighbouring East Java province on New Year's Eve.

Both disasters followed days of monsoon rains.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday pledged to investigate claims that deforestation was to blame for the flooding and landslides.

Environmentalists pointed the finger at 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.

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

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.