The Foreign Office identified the Britons as O Jackman, Mrs Kretschener, K Abery, Miss S Shaw, N Scoular and J Ratnavale.

All 229 passengers and crew on the Swissair MD11 aircraft are believed to be dead after it ditched into the sea, just two minutes from Halifax Airport in Nova Scotia, Canada.

No other details have been released, but it is known that Joyce Ratnavale, 74, was a former United Nations employee returning to Geneva in Switzerland with her Sri Lankan-born husband Victor, 77.

60 bodies recovered

Mrs Ratnavale's sister-in-law, Monica Ratnavale, 77, said: "They had so many friends in Geneva who, like me, will be devastated."

The named of the British passengers were withheld until their relatives had been informed.

More than 60 bodies have already been retrieved from the waters off Nova Scotia.

Investigators will now examine the aircraft's black box flight recorders for clues to the cause of the crash.