An Australian Army chief said on Saturday that three weeks after the deadly Victorian bushfires, at least 37 people were still known to be missing.

Brigadier Michael Arnold, commander of the Joint Task Force assisting Victorian authorities in the fire relief effort, said new teams of soldiers would begin searching devastated properties previously combed for disaster victims.

Ninety army reservists flew into Melbourne on Saturday to join existing soldiers on the ground around the Kinglake area, about 80 km north of Melbourne, in double-checking ruined homes.

Last week, Victorian Coroner Jennifer Coate ordered virtually all bushfire-ravaged sites to be closely searched again after several sets of human remains were recovered from sites already searched.

"This is a search task requested of us by the police. The coroner wanted to be convinced that a reasonable search had been conducted," Australian Associated Press quoted Arnold as saying in Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria.

"To do that, the police, with us, will go right through the 1, 300 or so sites that were affected by the fire to confirm that there are no more human remains," he said.

The death toll from February 7 hits 210, which is already the worst of any bushfire disasters in Australia's history.

(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2009)