The two Spaniards travelling on the doomed Air France flight 447 have been named as Andrés Suárez Montes, a 38-year-old engineer from Seville and 26-year-old Anna Negra Barrabeig from Catalunya.

Mr Suárez Montes was employed by the Brasilian branch of petroleum giants, Schlumberger, and had recently settled in Paris after getting married. He had been planning to return to Cádiz for a wedding on June 13th.

Ms Negra Barrabeig, who had been living and working in Dubai for the past three years, was returning from her two-week honeymoon in Brasil and had planned to catch a connecting flight from Paris to Barcelona to spend the rest of her holidays with her family.

Her aunt, Isabel Negra, told the press what a 'wonderful, happy person' Anna was, adding that she was 'full of life' and 'delighted by her recent wedding'.  Her parents are said to be distraught at the loss of their daughter.

Her husband of only two weeks, Javier Álvarez, from Madrid, returned on another flight to the United Arab Emirates in order to go back to work after his honeymoon break.

The Airbus A330-200 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappeared yesterday morning over the Atlantic Ocean just off the north-east coast of Brasil.  Aircraft and ships from the armed forces of a number of countries, including Spain, are currently searching for remains of the Airbus, which went down in a fierce electrical storm with 216 passengers and 12 crew on board.

Today, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero offered 'unconditional help' with the search for the missing plane and said that the Spanish government would 'collaborate in every possible way' with their French counterparts in the recovery operation.

Some items, including an aircraft seat, have already been recovered from the ocean and more ships will arrive in the zone tomorrow to help with the mammoth recovery task.