The remains of missing British journalist Dom Phillips have been identified, according to Brazilian police.

Mr Phillips, who disappeared with Indigenous expert guide Bruno Pereira earlier this month, was identified through forensic analysis, the agency said in a statement.

It comes after authorities said that the people who killed the two men had acted on their own initiative and not as part of a criminal group - an assertion rejected by Indigenous leaders.

"The investigations... suggest that the perpetrators acted alone, without there being an intellectual author or criminal organisation behind the crime," the Federal Police said in a statement.

"The investigations continue and there are indications of the participation of more people" in the murders, it added.

Veteran correspondent Mr Phillips, 57, and Mr Pereira, 41, went missing on 5 June in a remote part of the rainforest rife with illegal mining, fishing and logging, as well as drug trafficking.

Ten days later, on Wednesday, a suspect named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira - known as "Pelado" - took police to a place where he said he had buried bodies near the city of Atalaia do Norte, where the pair had been headed by boat.

Human remains unearthed from the site arrived in Brasilia yesterday evening for identification by experts.

Mr Phillips, a longtime contributor to The Guardian and other leading international newspapers, was working on a book on sustainable development in the Amazon with Pereira as his guide.

Mr Pereira, an expert at Brazil's indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, had received multiple threats from loggers and miners with their eye on isolated Indigenous land.

The Univaja association of Indigenous peoples, which had taken part in the search for the missing men, today refuted the police's conclusion that the killers had acted alone.

"These are not just two killers, but an organised group that planned the crime in detail," Univaja said in a statement.

It claimed authorities had ignored numerous complaints about the activities of criminal gangs in the area.

Univaja said it had filed a report in April to say that "Pelado" was involved in illegal fishing.

He had previously been accused, it said, of "being the perpetrator of gun attacks in 2018 and 2019 against a base of FUNAI," the organization Pereira had worked for.

Univaja said that "a powerful criminal organisation (had) tried at all costs to cover its tracks during the investigation" of the double murder.

Experts say illegal fishing of endangered species in the Javari Valley takes place under the control of drug traffickers who use the sale of fish to launder drug money.

A protestor holds a banner depicting British missing journalist Dom Philipps and Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira

Yesterday, the UN denounced a "brutal act of violence" as activists blamed the murders on President Jair Bolsonaro for allowing commercial exploitation of the Amazon at the cost of environment and law and order.

UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said attacks and threats against activists and Indigenous people in Brazil were "persistent" and urged the government to step up protections.

Investigations continue to look into the motive for the crime.

Police have been unable to find the boat in which Mr Phillips and Mr Pereira were travelling when they were last seen.

Blood found in Mr Oliveira's boat belonged to a man, investigators said, but not to Mr Phillips.

Analysis had also revealed that entrails found in the river during the search contained "no human DNA," according to police.

On Monday, Mr Bolsonaro had said that human remains were found floating in the river, in an interview in which he appeared to blame the missing men for undertaking a "reckless" trip in an area where Mr Phillips was "disliked."

"All signs indicate that if they were killed - and I hope that's not the case - they're in the water, and in the water there won't be much left. I don't know if there are piranhas in the Javari," said the far-right president, whose government is accused of dragging its feet in the investigation.

A forensic dental exam carried out on human remains found in the Amazon confirmed they belonged to to the missing British journalist, CNN Brasil reported today, citing unnamed federal police sources.

A dental exam for a second body and genetic tests for both bodies are still being carried out, CNN Brasil reported.

The United States has called for accountability over the murders, as it hailed defenders of the rainforest.

"We call for accountability and justice - we must collectively strengthen efforts to protect environmental defenders and journalists," State Department spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter.