The search for victims of the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine must go on as only about 200 bodies appear to have been found so far, Dutch officials say.

Forensics expert Jan Tuinder said his team had begun counting the bodies that earlier arrived in the town of Kharkiv.

The first bodies, which were moved out of territory held by pro-Russian rebels, are due to be flown to the Netherlands on Wednesday.

The plane crashed in a rebel-held area on 17 July, killing all 298 on board.

American intelligence officials on Tuesday said evidence suggested the rebels may have shot down the jet “by mistake”, and that no direct link to Russia had been found.

However, Russia “created the conditions” for downing flight MH17 by arming the rebels, the officials were quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

Russia has repeatedly said Ukrainian government forces are to blame for the attack, but the US officials said that Russian claims were “not plausible”.

Speaking at a news conference in the town of Kharkiv, Mr Tuinder said they would have to go back to the crash site to carry out another search.

“We will not leave until [all] remains have left this country so we will have to go on and bargain again with the people over there,” he said.

It was widely reported that more than 280 bodies had been on the train, which brought the remains to Kharkiv.

However, Mr Tuinder later clarified that a reliable source who was there during the loading of the bodies on to the train had given a figure of 200.

He said this number could increase as the forensics teams go through the refrigerated wagons.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Interpol said international experts in Kharkiv would carry out preliminary examinations on the bodies before their transport to the Netherlands.

Most of those who died when the Boeing 777 crashed were Dutch, and the first remains are due to be flown from Kharkiv to the Dutch city of Eindhoven on Wednesday.

From there, they will go to a facility in the city of Hilversum for identification – a process which Dutch officials say could take months.

The Dutch government has declared Wednesday a national day of mourning.

Interpol said the remains of victims recovered so far from the crash site had been “labelled and numbered before being transported in refrigerated freight wagons from Donetsk to Kharkiv”.

BBC News – MH17 plane crash: Remains of victims ‘still at crash site’.