BRASILIA (Reuters):

Rescuers yesterday cleared the thick jungle around the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger plane that crashed in the Amazon with 155 people on board, opening the way for teams to begin retrieving bodies.

"The chances of finding survivors are increasingly slim," Milton Zuanazzi, head of the country's aviation regulator, said of what is feared to be Brazil's worst aviation disaster.

Rescue workers were in the area but still preparing better access through the jungle to site where the brand-new Boeing belonging to the low-cost airline Gol crashed on Friday.

Operations hampered

"It is an extremely difficult area for a rescue operation. They've reached parts, they haven't been able to evaluate the entire area," Zuanazzi told a news conference.

About 200 soldiers, firemen, and local volunteers were cutting through thick vegetation to the site with the help of native Indian guides.

Zuanazzi said he did not know how long the removal of bodies would take or when an official death toll would be announced. The plane had carried 149 passengers and six crew.

The Boeing 737-800 probably hit the ground nose first after it clipped a smaller executive jet, an aviation official said on Saturday.