Emergency workers have continued searching through the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) aircraft which was believed to have been shot down by separatists near the Ukraine-Russia border.

According to a Ukraine Foreign Ministry representative, Andriy Sybiga, 181 bodies had been found as of Friday.

He added, all the bodies will be to Kharkiv, a government-controlled city for identification.

MAS in a statement Friday said the passengers included 189 Dutch, 44 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine British nationals, four Belgian, four German, three Filipino, one Canadian and a New Zealander.

Ukraine meanwhile has called for an international probe to determine who was responsible for the attack on the plane but access to the site remained difficult and dangerous.

The crash site lies close to the capital of Donetsk, the site where the separatists rose up against central rule from Kiev in April.

Ukraine separatists have agreed to provide assistance in the investigation surround the tragedy that had befallen Flight MH17 and have pledged to ensure safe access for international experts visiting the site.

Kiev, however, refuted those claims saying the separatists had prevented Ukrainian officials from reaching the crash site.