Separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, where Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed, announced they would hand over the black boxes from the plane to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Aleksander Borodai, speaking for the separatist rebels, told a press conference in Donetsk that some items, ""presumably the black boxes," have been found and delivered to Donetsk under rebel control.

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Borodai told media that they had no specialists with them who could actually say they were black boxes, but that they had taken "some technical items which could be the black boxes" and brought them to Donetsk.

The statement came amid reports that pro-Russia rebels had taken custody of 196 bodies recovered from the site where the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet came down after being hit by a surface-to-air missile on Thursday, killing all 298 people on board.

Emergency workers were expected to deliver the bodies to a disaster crisis center that the Ukrainian government had set up in the city of Kharkiv, 300 kilometers north of the crash site.

But a rebel spokesman said the bodies would remain in refrigerated train cars at a station in the rebel-controlled town of Torez until a team of international aviation experts arrived in the area.

No information was available on whether the bodies of the 102 other plane victims have been recovered. But Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors said some of the bodies near the plane's engine may have been vaporized by intense heat.

Reports say the rebels are restricting access by journalists and OSCE monitors to the crash site, leading to suggestions that they are interfering with the investigation and could be tampering with evidence.

The rebels denied they were obstucting international monitors.

The Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatists accuse each other of firing the missile that downed the Malaysian plane. Both have denied responsibility in the tragedy.

In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron criticized Russia for supporting the separatist movement in Ukraine. Writing in The Sunday Times, he said the attack was a "direct result of Russia destabilizing a sovereign state, violating its territorial integrity, backing thuggish militias and training and arming them." Cameron added that Europe must now "respond robustly."

The British prime minister's remarks were seen as a veiled criticism of European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for not supporting stricter sanctions on Russia for its involvement in Ukraine.

In Kiev, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the attack, which killed 189 Dutch nationals on board the doomed flight.

TagsMalaysia Airlines Flight MH17, Malaysia Airlines crash, Ukraine vs. Russia