SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) -- Brazilian police have found the decomposed bodies of 23 illegal diamond prospectors apparently killed by Indians in a battle on their remote Amazon reserve, the government's Indian agency said on Saturday.

The men were killed on the morning of April 7 when prospectors opened fire on Cinta Larga, or "Wide Belt," Indians as they approached to negotiate with them, said Carlos Tavares, spokesman for Brazil's National Indian Foundation, or Funai.

The Indians fought back with small caliber rifle, arrows, spears and daggers, he said. One Indian was shot in the foot.

"The federal police has confirmed 23 bodies. And on Monday a federal police task force of 280 men is going to the area to remove all the prospectors, disarm everybody," he said.

Police were searching for more bodies from the clash between miners and Indians on the 2.1 million hectare (5.2 million acres) Roosevelt reserve in Rondonia state, said Tavares.

The reserve has long been a point of conflict between Indians and wildcat miners who are periodically pushed off the reserve by authorities only to move back in again in search of a fortune in diamonds.

Tensions have been rising again on the reserve, which some experts say could be one of the biggest diamond regions in South America. Mining on Indian reserves is illegal in Brazil.

Authorities have not been able to drive the miners off for good because of the reserve's size and thick, impenetrable jungle, terrain which is making the police search difficult.

Last week, police said they had found three dead miners and feared 14 miners had been killed in clashes with the Indians.

On Saturday, Mauro Sposito, head of the Brazilian federal police's Amazon drugs unit, said about 20 more dead miners had been found but the exact number could not be confirmed until the bodies had been collected from the remote jungle area.

The number of dead could still rise.

"The prospectors say that more than 60 prospectors are missing. ... But Funai isn't confirming that and neither are the federal police," Tavares said, adding that there were an estimated 1,000 prospectors in the area.

The worst previous confrontation between miners and Indians took place in 1993 when gold miners killed 16 Yanomami Indians, including women and children.

Copyright 2004 Reuters.