(AFP) Searchers today found the body of a 17-year-old British holidaymaker, Ellie James, who had been lost for a week on southeast Asia's highest mountain in Sabah.

She was sprawled face downwards on a 65 degree slope near the summit of the 4,101-metre Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, police and park rangers said.

Rangers told AFP Ellie may have slipped on rocks wet with rain, but that she had probably died of hypothermia because the only visible sign of injury was a bruised hand.

They said that at night temperatures on the mountain can drop to below freezing point, particularly at this time of year when monsoon weather regularly brings winds of 60 kilometres an hour.

District police chief Dzulbaharin Ismail said: "We can't say for sure what caused her death, but in the past two to three days the weather has been very cold."

"Seeing as her body was found in an open area and without visible injuries, it is possible that she died from the cold. But we cannot confirm until the post mortem has been carried out," he told AFP .

It was not immediately clear how long Ellie had been dead.

Bad weather

The seven-day search for the missing girl was hampered by fog and heavy rain, and bad weather was still working against rescuers.

"Strong winds and mist are preventing the rescue team from retrieving the body," said Dzulbaharin.

He said rescuers would attempt to raise the body to a flat surface when the weather cleared and take it to Laban Rata, a resting point for hikers before they mount an assault on the peak.

Ellie's body would then be taken to hospital in Kota Kinabalu for a post mortem, he said.

A senior park official said the body was found around mid-morning "near the St. John's peak area at 4,090 metres".

He said if the weather improved, a helicopter would be sent to collect her.

"If the weather is bad, we will carry her down ourselves."

Brother found

Ellie, on holiday from Cornwall, became separated from her family on Thursday while descending the mountain. She wandered off with her 15-year-old brother Henry, who was found alive six hours later by rescuers.

Her parents, Bruce James, 54, and Claire, 49, along with Henry and another brother, kept vigil at a hotel near the mountain as some 90 policemen, soldiers and volunteers combed the jungle-clad slopes.

Hopes that Ellie was still alive rose on Monday when soldiers found a makeshift bed of tree branches and the skins of wild bananas at about 5,000 feet.

Mount Kinabalu, which attracts some 30,000 tourists each year, is known by the native Dusun people as the "abode of the dead".

Climbers are discouraged between August and November as the wet monsoon season brings thick mist and strong winds.

In 1994 around a dozen British Army troops 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 forces, who rescued the rest.

Over the years, several people have gone missing on Mount Kinabalu. In some cases, no trace of them was ever found.