COLOMBIA: Emergency crews have almost completed the grim task of recovering bodies from the mine blast that killed 32 men.

Efforts to remove the bodies trapped more than 1300 feet underground by Saturday's blast were hit by poor conditions and dangerous levels of toxic methane gas.

Civil defence director Fernando Rosales said 30 bodies had now been recovered. He added: "There's one body remaining which crews will try to get tomorrow."

Another miner escaped after the blast but died in hospital in Cucuta.

President Alvaro Uribe has already travelled to the mine in the remote hamlet of San Roque, 255 miles northeast of Bogota.

He vowed the government would provide economic assistance to victims' families if the mine's owner had not contributed to employees' pension funds - a frequent labour violation in the poorly regulated mining sector. He also promised an investigation into whether the mine had passed recent safety inspections.