Everest bodies from a former expedition

Nepal said on Thursday that four bodies found in tents at the highest camp on Mount Everest were not mountaineers from this year's climbing season.

Nepali sherpas said they had seen the bodies in two tents on the South Col, at 8000m, and a newspaper quoted the sherpas as saying that two were foreigners.

But two days after the discovery, Nepal's tourism department said it had checked all the expeditions on the world's highest mountain and none had reported any climbers missing.

"I can categorically confirm that these bodies are not of the climbers from the current session," said Durga Dutta Dhakal, a director at the tourism department in charge of climbing.

The conflicting information has renewed calls for better tracking of people on the mountain, as well as screening climbers and their guides to ensure that only people with experience attempt the 8850m summit.

Dhakal said so far five climbers had died attempting Everest from the Nepali side in the current season, and one climbing the Chinese route.

"No one [else] has gone missing. But I am not in a position to confirm the identity of climbers, which team they belonged to and which year they died."

More than 5,000 climbers have scaled Mount Everest since it was first climbed by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Nearly 300 mountaineers have died.

Many of the victims remain on the mountain, entombed in snow, because it it's too difficult to get their bodies down.

Mingma Sherpa, the head of the Seven Summit Treks group, said the sherpas had found the four bodies while on their way to retrieve the body of a Slovak climber. "It now appears the bodies could be climbers who died during old expeditions."

Nepal has issued permits to 371 foreign climbers this season, up from last year's 281, at $11000 apiece, a major source of income for the cash-strapped country.