Madrid - The Spanair passenger plane which crashed in Madrid last week lacked engine power to take off, Spanish press reports said Tuesday.

A stewardess who was the only crew member to survive, and most other witnesses reported that the plane was struggling to rise in the air, according to the daily El Pais.

One of the plane's two engines had the reverse system, which helps aircraft to slow down when landing, turned on. It was not known whether the pilot had activated it when noticing that the plane was unable to take off.

Wednesday's crash killed 154 people. A six-year-old boy who lost his 16-year-old sister in the accident became the first survivor to leave hospital on Monday.

Malaga, Spain - Spanish rescuers were Tuesday searching for the bodies of at least 20 African emigres who died on their boat while trying to reach Spain, national Red Cross sources said.

Twenty-five survivors were rescued overnight from the sinking boat off Almeria on the southern coast and taken to Malaga.

The boat was adrift for three days. The survivors said they had thrown overboard the bodies of their companions who died during the crossing.

The survivors included a woman who lost her husband, baby and two older children.

Four of the survivors were treated for hypothermia.

Another boat carrying 40 other migrants arrived in Almeria.

Madrid - Relatives of the 153 people killed in the Madrid air disaster this week expressed anger Saturday and predicted the investigation would be a cover-up.

"In the end the pilot will be blamed. He's dead and the whole business will get bogged down," an unidentified relative said.

Police and psychologists were brought in to speak to the relatives and in order to prevent a scuffle, as many expressed doubt that the identification process would proceed flawlessly.

Following the death of 62 Spanish soldiers in an aircraft crash in Turkey in 2003, many of the families were given the wrong remains to bury.

Madrid - A Spanish fishing boat has rescued 49 African migrants from their sinking inner-tube craft in the sea area between Libya and Malta, the Spanish Foreign Ministry has reported on Friday.

Following the rescue Spanish authorities had ordered the migrants to be brought to Libya, from where they had likely begun their journey.

However, Libyan authorities at the port of Tripoli initially refused to let them enter, and were admitted only after a telephone call from Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos to his Libyan counterpart.

According to Spanish media reports, the migrants initially refused to leave the fishing boat upon arrival in Libya, and barricaded themselves inside the vessel.

Madrid  - New questions have arisen in the search for the cause