JOS: At least 150 bodies were recovered from wells following deadly Muslim-Christian clashes in central Nigeria in which the estimated death toll already stood at about 300.

"So far we have picked 150 bodies from the wells. But 60 more people are still missing, said Umar Baza, head of Kuru Karama village near the city of Jos told AFP on telephone.

"We took an inventory of the displaced people from this village, sheltering in three camps and we realise that 60 people can still not be accounted for," he added.

"We believe there are more bodies in the wells but the degree of their decomposition makes it difficult to continue the retrieval operation. We have therefore decided to sand-fill all the wells," Baza further said.

Head of the Muslim volunteer team in the village, Mohammed Shittu, said further searches would be carried out on Saturday with security escorts.

"Now we have 150 bodies in all, taken from the wells as from Thursday. We are still going back there today (Saturday) to comb the bush around the village to search for more bodies," he also told AFP.

"From the account of survivors, some people fleeing attacks were ambushed and killed in the bush. That is why we are going there to search for more bodies.

A Muslim official who visited Kuru Karama to arrange for the burial of bodies told global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) that 121 corpses had been recovered in wells, including the those of 22 young children.

The state government has given no official death toll for the violence, which broke out last Sunday in Jos, capital of Plateau State, and later spread to nearby towns and villages, but religious leaders and medical workers said they had counted around 300 bodies by Wednesday.

HRW on Saturday urged Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to order "an immediate criminal investigation into credible reports of a massacre of at least 150 Muslim residents of a town in central Nigeria."

HRW said in a statement received in Lagos that witnesses said groups of armed men -- believed to be Christians -- attacked the largely Muslim population of Kuru Karama on Tuesday morning.

"After surrounding the town, they hunted down and attacked Muslim residents, some of whom had sought refuge in homes and a local mosque, killing many as they tried to flee and burning many others alive," the statement said.

Christian and Muslim leaders in Plateau State said previously the unrest owed more to the failure of political leaders to address ethnic differences than to inter-faith rivalries.

"This tragic event certainly challenges us all to address the deep hurts, festering wounds and unresolved grievances ...from earlier episodes," said Abuja Catholic Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Sultan of Sokoto, Abubakar Saad, in a joint statement.

Some 18,000 people have already taken refuge in military barracks, churches and mosques around the city after fleeing the fighting, the Red Cross said.

Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan pledged that the ringleaders responsible for the violence would be brought to justice, and ordered the army to take over security of the affected regions and sensitive neighbouring areas.

"The federal government is determined to secure convictions of the perpetrators of this crime, no matter how highly placed," he said in a broadcast late Thursday.

Jos has been a hotbed of religious violence in Nigeria, whose 150 million people are divided almost equally between followers of the two faiths.

An estimated 200 people were killed in religious clashes in the city in late 2008.