The bodies of 54 women, 14 men and five yet to be identified have been recovered, a senior official said.
Rescuers have already picked up 159 surviving passengers.
An official from the social welfare ministry announced the news, saying: "We were able to salvage the sunken ferry yesterday and we don`t expect to find any more bodies, so we`ve suspended the official rescue operation."
The ferry was travelling between the towns of Homalin and Monywa when it sank about 85 miles northwest of Mandalay, Myanmar`s second largest city.
It was carrying at least 300 passengers, well ahead of its official capacity of 120, according to reports.
A statement from President Htin Kyaw issued by state-owned media said he expressed "condolences for the dead, offering assistance to the bereaved families and announcing action against those responsible after a systematic probe".
While marine accidents are common because so many people rely on water as a mode of transport and many boats are overcrowded and badly maintained, Saturday`s death toll was the highest since March last year when 64 people drowned off Rakhine.
On that occasion, the overloaded ferry sank because of bad weather.
An inquiry is to be launched into this latest disaster.
More about:
-1780923278.jpg&h=190&w=280&zc=1&q=100)
