French satellites have made the latest sighting of possible aircraft wreckage in the southern Indian Ocean, adding to the renewed sense of optimism surrounding the search for missing flight MH370.
Malaysia's transport ministry announced late on Sunday (AEDT) it had received pictures of the objects from French authorities.
It gave no further details about the size or nature or number detected but said the data had been passed to Australian authorities leading the search for MH370.
It is the third detection by satellites of possible wreckage from the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER.
Chinese and US satellites recorded large objects in the same search area, about 2500km southwest of Perth.
Observers on a civil aircraft spotted a wooden cargo pallet, belts and straps on Saturday, with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) later confirming wooden pallets were "quite common" on large passenger aircraft.
Flight MH370 went missing on March 8, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
"There is increasing hope - no more than hope - that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft," Prime Minister Tony Abbott commented on Sunday.
That hope was tempered slightly after no further sightings of possible debris were recorded by aircraft or ships on Sunday.
The search zone was refined slightly following receipt of China's satellite data and could be refined further on Monday following the French discovery.
Eight aircraft were involved in Sunday's search but spotted nothing of note.
Aircraft from China and Japan will join the hunt for MH370 on Monday.
The Chinese polar research and supply ship Xue Long is on the way, as are warships from around the globe.
Australian defence vessel Ocean Shield, which has a remote-controlled submarine aboard, is also en route.
Meanwhile, the threat of poor weather in the search zone from tropical cyclone Gillian appears to have dissipated.
Latest data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) shows the cyclone is forecast to strengthen to a category one weather system by Tuesday.
However, the BoM data suggests it will track at least 1000km north of the current MH370 search zone.
source: news.theage.com.au
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