About 400 relatives gathered in the capital Taipei, bowing before strips of symbolic yellow paper and chanting Buddhist scriptures.

China Airlines executives joined the relatives despite public anger towards the airline.

The memorial service came as Taiwan's cabinet approved the resignations of the chairman and 10 directors of the national carrier's major shareholder.

Victims' families have expressed anger over the airline's appalling safety record and the delay in retrieving bodies and wreckage from Saturday's disaster.

Rescue teams have recovered more than 90 bodies from the waters off Taiwan's Penghu island, but bad weather has hampered the search.

Very little wreckage has been recovered, although workers have pinpointed the location of a large chunk of the plane as well as the voice cockpit and flight data recorders.