The first bodies recovered from the Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed in Ukraine last week are to be flown to the Netherlands for identification, the BBC reports.

The Netherlands is holding a day of mourning for the 298 killed in the July 17 crash, 193 of whom were Dutch.

Meanwhile, United States intelligence officials say pro-Russian rebels shot down the jet by mistake, but they have not found any direct link to Russia.

The plane crashed in a rebel-held area after apparently being hit by a rocket.

The rebels have been accused of stalling investigators, tampering with evidence and giving inaccurate information about the number of bodies recovered.

A refrigerated train carriage carrying about 200 bodies arrived at the government-held city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, four days after the crash.

Experts said they would continue to search the crash site.

On Wednesday morning, 40 coffins were slowly loaded on to two military planes at Kharkiv airport.

The BBC says ambassadors, officials and soldiers gathered to see off the planes.