SENEGAL promised answers yesterday in one of Africa's worst ferry disasters, with President Abdoulaye Wade acknowledging that the MS Joola was overcrowded when it set out with 1,034 aboard.

　　Only 64 people are known to have survived when the ferry rolled sideways into the Atlantic Ocean in heavy winds four days ago,trapping hundreds of screaming passengers inside. That leaves about 970 missing or presumed dead.

　　Media reports say boat was designed for no more than 600 people. The boat was flat-bottomed, giving it less protection against rising waves, and Wade conceded earlier the ferry was not meant for voyages in the high seas.

　　Authorities said an investigation ordered by the president would be expected yesterday, providing a fuller accounting.

　　The toll of missing and presumed dead soared Sunday when the government revealed that there were 250 more people on board than first announced.

　　More than 350 bodies have been retrieved so far. Military vessels and planes of Senegal, Gambia and France have been helping in recovery of dead from the MS Joola.

　　Making a run from fertile south Senegal to the capital, Dakar, the ferry had foundered just before midnight Thursday off Gambia, a narrow former English colony that divides north and south Senegal.

　　Authorities set up five ``crisis centers'' in Dakar for relatives over the weekend, displaying photos of the badly bloated dead in hopes of identifying victims.

　　Thousands of grieving family members filed past, increasingly despairing.

　　Ambulance teams tended to those who passed out from temperatures of about 33 degrees centigrade (92 degrees Fahrenheit).

　　Many victims' faces were too waterlogged to be recognizable. One bleary-eyed woman wailed ``Papa, Papa!'' as she was helped away from a display.

　　Capt. Samba Fall of the Senegalese navy said many children were on board because they were returning from summer vacation from the southern Casamance region, known for powdery beaches. He declined to say how many children were on board or believed missing.

　　The government has pledged financial support for the families of the victims, and relatives who identified victims were to be helped in arranging funerals, Fall said.