By Ahmad Pathoni MAKASSAR, Indonesia, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Indonesia stepped up on Sunday its search for an Adam Air plane with 102 people on board that disappeared in bad weather almost a week ago, as anger mounts among anxious relatives of the passengers. Some 700 troops and four more helicopters would be added to the hunt for the Indonesian budget airline's 17-year-old Boeing 737-400, said military spokesman Captain Mulyadi in Makassar, from where search efforts are being coordinated. Nearly 2,900 soldiers and police have been looking for the missing plane along with at least four Indonesian military planes, a Singapore Air Force Fokker-50 and a helicopter, but relatives of passengers confronted the Indonesian vice president on Saturday and called for more to be done. The search had initially concentrated in areas of western Sulawesi, where the last emergency signal was received, but was expanded to the north and east of the island on Friday. "There is optimism but there is no guarantee," Mulyadi said, when asked about the chances of finding the plane. The pilot did not issue a distress call from the plane, which left Surabaya on Indonesia's main island of Java on Monday for Manado, the provincial capital of North Sulawesi. Nothing has been heard of the jet since a signal from its emergency locator beacon was detected by a Singapore satellite. In his last conversation with air traffic control in Makassar, the pilot said he had encountered cross-winds, officials said. Radar continued to track the flight for some time after that. U.S. transport safety officials arrived in Sulawesi on Saturday and are working with Indonesian regulators investigating the disappearance. On Saturday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told relatives waiting in Makassar the government would spare no effort in its search for the missing plane, but they called for Indonesia to accept more help from abroad. "We have been here for five days with the only clothes that we are wearing," Yunus, whose cousin was on the plane, told Kalla. "If you ask us to pray, we have done it since day one. Why don't we ask for more help from more advanced countries like the United States?" Among the 96 passengers and six crew on the plane were a father and his two daughters from Bend, Oregon.
