An Australian vessel searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has detected signals consistent with those from "black box" flight recorders.

The Ocean Shield ship picked up the signal twice, once for more than two hours, said Angus Houston, a retired air chief marshal leading the search.

He called it the "most promising lead" so far.

But he said more information was needed: "We haven't found the aircraft yet and we need further confirmation."

Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said he had been briefed by Air Chief Marshal Houston and was "cautiously hopeful that there will be a positive development in the next few days if not hours".

The plane, carrying 239 people, was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March when it disappeared. Malaysian officials say they believe it crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

(BBC)