MH370: Tripartite meeting to be held before Jan 28

He said the decision whether or not to continue or to temporarily suspend the search for the missing aircraft would be made at the meeting.

"A tripartite meeting involving top level officials from Malaysia, Australia and China had been held last month and another meeting at ministerial level is expected to be held before the Chinese New Year (Jan 28).

"The three countries are committed to completing the final stage of the search in the 120,000 sq km area in the remote Indian Ocean," he told reporters after launching the Kawasaki Road Safety Campaign 2017 at the south-bound Sungai Besi toll plaza here today.

Elaborating, Liow said as of today, the authorities involved had no intention to change the search operation to other area as no new evidence or specific fresh leads were forthcoming.

"Although certain quarters say that it could probably be found in other area, it is only a speculation. We don't have specific lead to search in the said area.

"As for now, we will complete the search in the 120,000 sq km search area and when it is all done, we will wait for the report if there is anymore credible clue to look for," the minister said.

Liow said the report was expected to be completed in another week or two and once ready, would be uploaded to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSN) website.

"The search mission will end soon and after that, the report will be made available online. Any decision based on the report will be done later," he said.

Flight MH370, with its 239 passengers and crew members disappeared from the radar while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 7, 2014.

In another development, Liow said the integrated Ops Jalan in conjunction with the Chinese New Year this year would be implemented from Jan 21 until Feb 6, involving the Road Transport Department (RTD), Road Safety Department and the Royal Malaysian Police.