Workers unearthed the bodies of a 70-year-old woman and another in her 40s in the ruins of a building in the centre of the devastated Abruzzo capital of L'Aquila, spokesman Luca Cari told Sky TG24 TV.

The body of the 17-year-old son of one of the women was later recovered.

Firemen have also been scouring the rubble of a four storey building in the city since Friday after machines and sniffer dogs detected signs of life, he said.

"It is very long and difficult work. Signs show there is a chance of life but it could be an animal -- or even drops of water," Cari said.

The search for more survivors is due to end Sunday -- a week after the killer earthquake hit the region overnight, damaging or destroying some 10,000 buildings and rendering nearly 40,000 people homeless.

Fifteen people are still reported missing.

The earth in the region shifted by up to 15 centimetres (six inches) uring the quake, the Italian space agency said Saturday.

Makeshift altars for Easter masses were being set up Saturday in the 30 camps that house some 18,000 survivors, driven from their homes by the quake. Some 10,000 wafers and 30 bottles of communion wine were brought in, the ANSA news agency said.

A service is planned at the military academy at L'Aquila, one of the few buildings spared by the quake and scene of the national funeral of some 200 victims Friday.

related report
Italy quake survivors face grim Easter
Survivors of Italy's devastating earthquake Saturday began salvaging what they could from their abandoned homes on a mournful Easter weekend as the death toll from the disaster rose to 293.

"I want to find our two cats and pick up some clothes," said Riccardo Copersini, waiting patiently for a fire service escort into the centre of the devastated old town of L'Aquila, capital of the central Abruzzo region.

"Anything else would be extra," Copersini said.

As hundreds of other newly homeless, clutching empty bags and suitcases, waited to be escorted to their damaged homes, fire service cars emerged laden with black bin bags full of personal belongings, televisions and bedsheets.

Many residents voiced fears of looting following several arrests since the quake on Monday that claimed at least 293 lives, despite the efforts of some 600 patrolling police officers.

"They say the door to my building is open, even the door to my apartment," said a man who requested anonymity. "Everything I own is in there," he told AFP.

Also in the queue was Vincenzo Rizi, an engineering professor at the university in the medieval city of 70,000. "We all need to rebuild our lives," he said simply.

Engineers meanwhile began assessing the damage to the estimated 10,000 buildings hit by Monday's earthquake, and the European Commission said construction experts will arrive in the region early next week.

"It's really a difficult situation. It will take a long time," Gennaro Tornatore, a fire service chief coordinating rescues, told AFP. "We're trying to get the situation under control. We've got 125 firefighters working on it."

Strong aftershocks continued to jolt the region, where some 40,000 people have lost their homes. Local administration chief Massimiliano Cordeschi said 18,000 people had registered for inspections of their homes so far.

Italy's space agency, comparing satellite radar images taken before and after the earthquake, said on Saturday that the earth in the region of L'Aquila had shifted by up to 15 centimetres (six inches).

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was set to attend an Easter mass in L'Aquila on Sunday, and other masses were planned in the many tent camps set up in and around the city.

Easter Sunday, the most joyous day on the Christian calendar, celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion.

At a mass funeral for the victims on Friday, Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone told survivors that Easter Sunday would "once again be a rebirth from the rubble for a people who have already suffered so many times."

But at one of the tent camps near L'Aquila, 70-year-old Anna Parisse said she was not looking forward to the holiday in the current situation.

"Unfortunately, we're going to have to celebrate Easter here. It's not going to be the same. I want to be at home with my family," she said.

She also voiced scepticism about Berlusconi's promises of aid, saying: "I don't trust him... He just says whatever comes into his head."

Berlusconi has promised extensive aid to the region and has visited affected areas several times, but residents have complained about inefficiency in the rescue effort.

President Giorgio Napolitano has led allegations that lax construction standards led to the collapse of many of the modern buildings in the disaster in a mountainous region known to be vulnerable to earthquakes.

Brother Simon, a Franciscan monk, went from tent to tent giving communion to those too infirm to attend services being celebrated in the camp and hearing confessions as part of traditional preparations for the Easter holiday.

"Amid all the suffering, there's also a discovery of the most essential value for some people," said the monk in his brown robe, chalice in hand. "But there are other people who are still too scared, still in shock."

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