48 believed dead in Australia refugee boat disaster

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the "best estimate" was that around 90 people were on the wooden fishing boat, which shattered on rocks at remote Christmas Island last Wednesday in a storm, as helpless residents looked on.

Only 42 people were rescued before the search for survivors was called off late Friday.

It is the worst disaster involving an asylum-seeker boat bound for Australia since the sinking of the SIEV-X off Indonesia in 2001, when all 353 on board died.

Survivors say the vessel was packed with Iranians, Iraqis and Kurds when it foundered on a rocky outcrop at Christmas Island, the site of Australia's main immigration detention centre and some 2,600 kilometres from the mainland.

The grim task of identifying the victims was underway at the hospital morgue today.

Police have interviewed three Indonesian crewmen rescued after the crash and expect to lay charges, though they have declined to comment on whether these will include manslaughter.

One survivor whose husband and young son are missing told the West Australian newspaper the crew cut the boat's engine as it approached the island's rugged coast, assuring passengers the navy would come to their rescue.

Turning people-smuggling boats back at sea was government policy under the conservative administration of John Howard, prompting incidents where the vessels were sabotaged to ensure passengers were taken onshore in Australia.

Police say there was nothing to indicate the doomed boat had been sabotaged.

The centre-left Labor party wound back the harshest aspects of Howard's refugee policy, but legal experts said killing engine power in Australian waters was likely still a "habit" of people smugglers to spark a rescue.

Gillard said the government would push ahead with plans for a regional processing centre for refugees, which it hopes will be built in East Timor, in a bid to "smash" the people-smuggling trade.