At least 66 people were feared dead yesterday after a ferry disaster In Tonga which the prime minister described as "devastating" for the tiny Pacific kingdom.

As grieving relatives gathered at the wharf in the capital Nuku'alofa, singing hymns, for comfort and expressing anger the ageing vessel was allowed to sail, Prime Minister Feleti Sevelc said hope was fading for the missing.

"The hopes for the rest are not promising, unfortunately,” Sevele told journalists at a meeting of Pacific leaders in Australia.

"It's a very' sad day ... it's quite huge for a population of 100,000, a small place, devastating."

Officials said only 53 survivors had been found from the 119 believed to have be on board the 34-year-old Princess Ashika, which

turned over and sank at speed overnight on Wednesday.

Most on board were Tongans but the incomplete passenger list also included British, German. French and Japanese nationals. Police said the lack of accurate records meant the number of missingcould be higher.

The missing included 21 women and seven children who were sleeping below decks when (he ferry sank. Two bodies have been found, includingone of a British man.

Dive teams from the New Zealand and Australian navies were to fly in late Friday to help recover bodies from the sunken ferry, which is lying in 35 metres (115 feet) of water.

Ferries are an essential mode of transport in Tonga, a sprawling island nation, and elsewhere in the Pacific. A ferry sinking last month in Kiribati left 33 people dead.