Two British nationals were among the 103 people killed when an Afriqiyah Airways jet crashed in Libya, the Foreign Office has said.

Many of the victims were Dutch and a ten-year-old Dutch boy was the sole survivor, Libyan officials said.

The Airbus A330-200 was flying from Johannesburg to the Libyan capital when it crashed just short of the runway at around 6 am.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said there were several dozen Dutch passengers on board the aircraft. Libyan officials said 22 of the victims were Libyans. They gave no details of the other nationalities on board.

The plane was carrying 93 passengers and 11 crew, Libyan officials and executives from the airline said.

Libyan Transport Minister Mohamed Zidan said: "Everybody is dead, except for one child." The minister said investigators were working out what went wrong with Afriqiyah Airways Flight 8U771, but he ruled out terrorism as the cause.