Nelson Marinho, who lost a son on the flight and is president of an association of Brazilian victims' family members, called the dedication "a smoke screen to take the focus off the responsibility that [Air France officials] have."

"We don't want ceremonies," he said.

Marinho said that many Brazilian relatives had yet to receive compensation. He also said any memorial should be located closer to where the jet went down - off Brazil's northeastern coast, about 2,000 miles north of Rio.

Air France said in a statement Thursday that the Rio memorial was created "at the request of 75 percent of the families contacted."

The statement didn't indicate how many of the families had been reached, however.

More than 150 relatives arrived on buses to attend yesterday's dedication. The French Foreign Ministry had said it expected 500 participants.

French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet, who was in Rio for the ceremony, told reporters that his government would investigate whether some families had not received compensation and relatives of non-French victims had been treated differently.

He also promised a vigorous effort to get to the bottom of what caused the crash.

"The French government wants to know the whole truth. It's a difficult investigation - we don't have the plane, only some debris," Joyandet said. "But the government will make a new attempt to find the black boxes."

The Airbus A330 crashed en route from Rio to Paris, and everyone aboard was killed.

The cause remains unclear, but attention has focused on whether a type of speed sensor known as a Pitot tube malfunctioned and sent false speed information to the jet's computers as the plane ran into a thunderstorm at about 35,000 feet.