Sydney - Australian hikers on the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea have stumbled across the skeletal remains of what they believe is a World War II pilot, still in a parachute harness and suspended from a tree.

"It's swinging like somebody caught in a tree and that's when you can really see the cabling and it's the exact shape of a body, same size, everything, but it's just covered in moss," tour guide David Collins told Australia's ABC Radio on Thursday.

"It's exactly what it looks like - just somebody caught in a harness, in a seat harness."

Collins, owner of Melbourne's No-Roads trekking company, said he had informed authorities in Australia, the United States and Japan of his find in the hope the body could be identified and reclaimed.

"I couldn't make it out at first," Collins said. "It was quite high up, about 12 to 15 metres. Then the wind blew again and I saw it move. It appears to be sitting in an aluminium harness and hanging from a cable, which leads us to believe it could be an airman."

The Kokoda Track is a popular hiking trail for Australians and Japanese visiting the locations where their forces clashed in 1942. Beginning 50 kilometres east of Port Moresby, the PNG capital, the Kokoda Track runs for 96 kilometres through the rainforest of the Owen Stanley Range. (dpa)