Relatives of some of the 225 victims of last week's China Airlines crash have carried out a Buddhist mourning ceremony in Taiwan.

About 400 relatives gathered in the capital Taipei, bowing before strips of symbolic yellow paper and chanting Buddhist scriptures.

China Airlines executives joined the relatives despite public anger towards the airline.

The relatives are demanding answers

The memorial service came as Taiwan's cabinet approved the resignations of the chairman and 10 directors of the national carrier's major shareholder.

Victims' families have expressed anger over the airline's appalling safety record and the delay in retrieving bodies and wreckage from Saturday's disaster.

Rescue teams have recovered more than 90 bodies from the waters off Taiwan's Penghu island, but bad weather has hampered the search.

Very little wreckage has been recovered, although workers have pinpointed the location of a large chunk of the plane as well as the voice cockpit and flight data recorders.

Families mourn

Hong Kong-bound flight CI 611 broke up mid-air and plunged into the sea 20 minutes after taking off from Taipei. The cause of the crash remains a mystery.

China Airlines accidents

1999 - MD11 airliner crash lands in Hong Kong, killing three people 1998 - A300-600 airliner crashes near Taipei killing all 197 on board and at least seven on ground 1994 - A300-600 crashes in Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people 1989 - 737-200 hits mountain near Hualien, Taiwan, killing 56 people

At Friday's memorial service several women collapsed into the arms of their friends, but most others remained calm. Under Buddhist tradition, Taiwanese believe the souls of the dead return to the mortal world on the seventh day.

Yu Chia-yi and her two siblings lost their mother, who was travelling with neighbours on a group tour bound for northern China.

"We had encouraged Mom to travel and enjoy herself now that we have all grown up and can take care of ourselves," Miss Yu said.

At another memorial service in Penghu, Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian spoke to the relatives of several victims.

Relatives are demanding harsh punishment of China Airlines, which has had four fatal crashes in the past eight years.

"The president promised to help. We will join hands with other victims' relatives to demand compensation and punish China Airlines," said one of the relatives, Lee Han, whose father's body is still missing.

Three days after the crash, Prime Minister Yu Shyi-kun pledged to privatise the airline within two years.

On Friday he welcomed the resignations of the board members of China Aviation Development Foundation, which has a 71% stake in the airline.

Corporate leaders in Taiwan traditionally resign after a major failure.

Saturday's crash killed 209 Taiwanese, nine Chinese, one Swiss, one Singaporean and five people from Hong Kong.