Mozambique authorities on Monday exhibited three new pieces of aircraft that washed up along its coast and are suspected of belonging to the missing flight MH370.

The largest item is a triangular shaped piece which is red and white on one side and metallic on the other.

It was picked up late last month by a South African hotelier off the waters of Mozambique's southern province of Inhambane.

Joao de Abreu, director of Mozambique's aviation authority said it was the first time a coloured piece had been found.

At a news conference, he said the piece could be "an aileron, a flap,(or) an elevator."

On the inside, "we can see a label which will make it much easier to identify which aircraft it belongs to," he said.

The other two pieces are smaller and were picked up by the son of a European Union diplomat near the southern resort of Xai Xai and handed to the authorities last month, he said, giving no further details.

The items will be sent to Malaysia for examination.

Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 vanished in March 2014 with 239 people onboard as it was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Australia, which is leading the search, has determined that the five pieces of debris examined so far -- found in Mozambique, South Africa and Mauritius -- almost certainly came from the plane.

The first debris linked to MH370 -- a two-metre-long (almost seven-foot) wing part known as a flaperon -- washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion a year ago.