Paris: Most of the 228 people on board an Air France airliner missing over the Atlantic are Brazilian, while at least 40 are French and 20 are German, a French minister said on Monday.
Separately, officials from other countries said it was believed that there were six Danes, five Italians, three Moroccans, two Lebanese and a Portuguese among the passengers.
Officials have not held out much hope for survivors.
An Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris was feared to have crashed into the Atlantic on Monday after suffering an electrical failure while flying through a fierce storm.
Air France said the Airbus A330-200 jet was probably hit by lightning, the airline said. The Brazilian and French air forces sent out search planes and other countries were on alert.
If it is confirmed that all 228 people were killed it would be the worst loss of life in Air France's history and civil aviation's worst accidental disaster for more than a decade.
"We are without a doubt faced with an aviation catastrophe. The entire company is thinking of the families and shares their pain," Air France chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told reporters.
French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said hijacking had been ruled out and that the plane had probably had some kind of accident.
"There's nothing on Spanish radar, nothing on Moroccan radar, nothing on French radar. We can seriously envisage the worst," Borloo said.
The minister told AFP there were "powerful" tropical storms in the zone.