(AFP) A rescue team has found signs that a 17-year-old British girl lost on southeast Asia's highest peak for six days may still be alive, officials said today.

Soldiers found a makeshift bed of tree branches late yesterday at about 1,500 metres in a forested area on Mount Kinabalu in Sabah state on Borneo island, said a ranger with Sabah Parks.

"Broken branches were arranged neatly into a flat platform. We believe that Ellie James built this as a resting place about two days ago but we are not able to confirm this," the ranger said.

He said rescuers also found banana skins in the area and what was believed to be the girl's trail along a grass path, but poor weather and the thick jungle hampered efforts to find further evidence.

Strong hope

"These signs gave us strong hope that she is still alive."

The ranger said the makeshift bed and trail were found about 40 kilometres from the village of Kiau, but Ellie would find it difficult to find her way out of the thick tropical forest.

"We have intensified our operation and will focus our search in the vicinity of the Kiau area," he said.

The police chief at Ranau town at the base of mountain, Dzulbaharin Ismail, said Ellie went missing at about 13,000 feet and the clues found at about 5,000 feet indicated she was making her way down the mountain.

"We believe she is still alive but we don't know her condition," he said. A helicopter was expected to be deployed tomorrow and the search was likely to continue for another three days, he added.

Local residents say there is plenty of water available for drinking on the mountain, and that banana trees grow wild on the jungle-clad slopes. Wild animals found in the area are not a threat to humans.

Special disaster relief team

A special 20-man disaster relief team from Kuala Lumpur arrived today afternoon and joined some 70 rescuers, including police, troops and volunteers, to comb the foggy jungle.

The ranger said weather had improved today, with the temperature around nine degrees Celsius and mist clearing to allow visibility of about a thousand metres.

Thick fog and heavy rain hampered the rescue operation over the last few days.

Ellie, on holiday from Cornwall, became separated from her family last Thursday while descending the 4,101 metre Mount Kinabalu in bad weather.

She wandered off with her 15-year-old brother Henry, but he was found six hours later by rescuers.

The girl's parents, Bruce James, 54, and Claire, 49, Henry and another brother are keeping vigil at a hotel near the mountain. They have refused to speak to reporters.

Mount Kinabalu, known by the native Dusun people as the "abode of the dead", has been closed to tourists since her disappearance.

Local newspaper reports say climbers, with the help of Dusun guides, traditionally sacrifice white cockerels to appease the mountain spirits for a safe journey back to the foothills.

First disappearance since 1994

Ellie's disappearance was the first since 1994 when a group of about a dozen British troopers stationed in Hong Kong and Britain lost their way as they attempted to be the first to abseil down the peak.

Two soldiers crawled out from a thick forested area more than two weeks later and alerted security, who rescued the rest.

In November 1989, two men from neighbouring Sarawak state went missing at the rocky summit during stormy weather. No trace of them was ever found.

Ng Chong, a 14-year-old Malaysian boy got lost in 1978 while hiking with his classmates. Only a shoe was found despite an extensive search.

In 1968, a Sabahan climber John Chee died from exposure to cold after he lost his way in thick mist. His body was recovered a day later by some Japanese climbers.

The Kinabalu National Park was recently declared a world heritage site.

Every year some 30,000 people scale the mountain, but climbers are discouraged between August and November as the wet monsoon season brings on thick mist and strong winds.