Jakarta - Fighting huge waves and bad weather, rescuers resumed their search Monday as more than 200 people remained missing after a passenger ferry capsized off the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi the previous day.

An official in the nearby port town of Majene said four more survivors were picked up by local fishermen on Monday, bringing the number of people known to have survived the accident to 22, including the ferry's skipper and three crew members.

"More than 240 other people remain missing so far. We still don't know their fate," said the official, Junaidi, who like many Indonesians, goes by only one name. He said some of the survivors were taken to hospital.

The Teratai Prima ferry left Pare-pare on Sulawesi island in central Indonesia on Saturday evening for Samarinda, East Kalimantan. The boat sank at dawn Sunday off the coast of Majene in West Sulawesi after being bit by waves as high as 4 metres during bad weather, survivors said.

Pare-pare harbour master Nurwahida said the ferry's last contact with the ship owner in Samarinda took place about two hours before the boat was hit by a storm and sank about 50 kilometres off the coastal town of Majene.

In addition to its 250 passengers and 17 crew members, the ill-fated ferry was also carrying about 200 tons of cargo, Nurwahida said.

A search team, comprising military and police officers, supported by an Indonesian Air Force plane, two Navy ships, Search and Rescue (SAR) vessels and fishing boats, set out at daybreak Monday, said Raden Arsono, an official at the SAR headquarters in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar.

"But high waves and bad weather hampered the operation," Arsono said.

On Sunday, Transport Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said the ministry had received an unconfirmed report that 150 people had been taken off the ferry, but he gave no further details.

However, Arsono said he could not confirm the report.

It was the latest in a series of sea disasters in recent years in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands that depends heavily on ocean transport.

In December 2006 a ship with 638 people aboard sank off East Java province. Only 230 people survived.

Indonesian passenger ferries and ships generally have poor safety records and often take on more than the permitted number of passengers and size of cargo.

Ervan said the Teratai Prima was not overloaded and had undergone a routine check earlier this month. (dpa)