Malaysian PM to meet Australian counterpart for update on MH370

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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will meet with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbot for talks on recovering missing flight MH370 on Thursday, a statement released by the Transport Ministry saidWednesday.

Razak, who is expected to arrive in Australia's Perth late on Wednesday, is due to visit Pearce Air Force base on Thursday morning to meet with personnel involved in the multinational search operation for MH370.

The Malaysian Prime Minister will also be briefed on the latest developments regarding the search.

Razak will then hold a bilateral meeting with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot later on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Defence Minister and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein is currently attending the US-ASEAN Defence Forum in Hawaii.

On Wednesday the minister had a telephone call with British Secretary of State for Defence Phillip Hammond. During the call Hammond confirmed that Britain would send HMS Tireless, a Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine with sonar capabilities, to help in the multinational search operation for MH370.

Nine ships and nine aircraft are searching a vast area roughly 930 miles west of Perth.

Three more ships, two Australian and one Malaysian, are on their way to the search zone. Britain HMS Tireless is expected to join Australian ship Ocean Shield to hunt for MH370's black box.

With the search now reaching its fourth week, investigators are running out of time to locate the "ping" set off by the black box.

Malaysian government officials on Wednesday also briefed the Chinese families on the search of MH370 and pledged to continue doing everything to find the missing flight.

A special briefing session was held for the Chinese relatives of those on board MH370.

The briefing took place from 10 a.m.to 1 p.m. local time at the Hotel Bangi in Putrajaya.

The briefing session was moderated by the Malaysian Prime Minister's Special Envoy to China Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting.

"Throughout the process, I want to assure you that we have done everything in our power to locate MH370. We have spared no effort and expense. We have worked hard, and cooperated with everyone who could help, including the people who are here," Civil Aviation Department Director General Datuk Azharuddin told the families.

The briefing was also telecast live to Beijing so families there could receive the briefing in real time. The technical briefing was provided by the Department of Civil Aviation and Chinese technical experts.