The head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, Bambang Soelistyo, said divers would rest for a couple of days before the search continued at the weekend.

The agency, known as Basarnas, would decide whether to call off the search seven days after it resumed on Saturday.

Mr Soelistyo said the focus would be to find the remaining bodies rather than the fuselage of the plane.

AirAsia flight 8501 plummeted into the Java Sea on December 28, less than an hour into a flight from Surabaya - Indonesia's second largest city - to Singapore.

All 162 passengers and crew were killed in the aviation disaster, which is believed to have been caused by turbulent weather.

Seventy bodies and the flight data and voice recorders - known as black boxes - have been recovered from the wreckage.

The decision by the military to withdraw from the search means the fuselage of the plane, which rescuers have unsuccessfully attempted to lift from the ocean bed, is likely to remain on the ocean floor.

With Karuni Rompies