Malaysia is awaiting information from Australia as to whether the objects shown in the satellite images are related to the missing flight MH370, while the search and rescue operations in the rest of the southern and northern corridors are underway, Malaysian officials said?on Friday.

Hishammuddin Hussein, minister of defence and acting minister of transport, told a press conference the Australian authorities were intensifying the search for the suspicious debris of the Malaysia Airlines jet found approximately 2,500 km southwest of Perth, while China had deployed five ships and three ship-borne helicopters to the southern corridor.

"Three Chinese aircraft arrived in Malaysia at 11:00 this morning," he said, adding that they would also be searching area in the southern corridor.

Hishammuddin said the Kazakhstan authorities had assured Malaysia that no trace of the missing plane had been found.

A briefing for the relatives of those on board the missing plane was held last night and the latest developments were updated and questions were answered, Hishammuddin said.

It was reported that the captain of the missing jet made a phone call just minutes before take-off inside the cockpit. Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, CEO of Malaysia Airlines, said it was under investigation.

Ukraine police have confirmed that the background checks on the Ukrainian passenger have come back clear, Hishamuddin added.

He said that though the black box's signal can last only for 30 days because of the battery, they will use other technologies to locate it. The black box of the Air France flight 447 which crashed on June 1, 2009 had not been found until almost two years later, he added.

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