MH370 search could end in two weeks: Malaysia

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The ongoing search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished in March 2014 with 239 people on board, has entered the "final lap", Malaysian Transport Minister ‍Liow Tiong Lai said on Friday.

The search effort over a 120,000-square-kilometer area in the southern Indian Ocean could be completed "within these two weeks", Liow added.

He said the countries involved in the search - Malaysia, Australia and China – must decide whether to continue the operation in other areas. The meeting could happen as early as the end of this month.

A recent report released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), in charge of the underwater search efforts, admitted there is a "high probability" the aircraft is not within the existing search area.

"We cannot just base on assumptions, we need credible clues to look for the plane, so we are waiting for the final report," Liow said when asked about the possibility of extending the search area.

The Beijing-bound flight disappeared from the radar on March 8, 2014, just 40 minutes after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. Most of the passengers were Chinese nationals.

So far, debris from the aircraft has been recovered from beaches on the French island of Reunion and Rodrigues, as well as Mozambique, Mauritius and South Africa.

Malaysia's Ministry of Transport senior accident investigator Aslam Basha Kham (C) talks to other officials inspecting a wing suspected to be a part of missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 discovered on the island of Pemba, off the coast of Tanzania, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, July 15, 2016. /VCG photo‍

(With input from Xinhua News Agency)