Lebanon's Prime Minister Tammam Salam called on Saturday French President Francois Hollande, and asked for help in identifying the bodies of the 19 Lebanese passengers aboard the crashed Air Algerie flight, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Salam telephoned Hollande to offer his condolences over the death of French nationals in the ill-fated plane and "requested France's help in identifying the bodies of the Lebanese victims before transferring them to Lebanon."

The French President offered in return his condolences to Salam, noting that the victims' bodies will be transferred in the coming days, after the release of the DNA tests' results."

Meanwhile, Lebanon's Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil contacted his French counterpart Laurent Fabius and shared with him procedures taken by the ministry in this respect.

Experts had taken DNA samples from the Lebanese victims' families, in order to compare them with human remains found at the crash site in Mali.

Lebanon confirmed that 19 of its nationals were on board of the Air Algerie flight coming from Burkina Faso to spend their holidays.

The aircraft, operated by Spanish charter firm Swiftair on behalf of Air Algerie, planned to fly from Burkina Faso to Algeria on Thursday, but disappeared from the radar 50 minutes after taking off.

Late in the day, authorities in Algeria, Mali and Burkina Faso confirmed that the plane crashed, as the plane wreckage were found in the area of Gossi, northeast of Mali, near border with Burkina Faso. There is no survivor among 116 passengers aboard the flight. Endi

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