A Chinese plane hunting for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has spotted "suspicious" objects, state media say, as more nations joined the search.
Searchers saw two "relatively big" objects with "many white smaller ones scattered within a radius of several kilometres", Xinhua news agency said.
Australia said it had been informed and would try to locate the objects.
Flight MH370 disappeared on 8 March while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board.
Ten planes were due to scour the southern Indian Ocean area on Monday for possible debris picked up earlier by radar echoes and satellite imagery.
Two Chinese military planes flew out to the search area, around 2,500 km (1,550 miles) south-west of Australian city Perth, on Monday morning, while two Japanese P-3 Orion aircraft were to set off later in the day.
They joined six other planes, including US and Australian military planes, in searching a 68,500 sq km (26,000 sq miles) area in the ocean.
An Australian navy ship is already in the area, while several Chinese ships are also on their way.
Bad weather
The latest objects were spotted by the crew of a Chinese IL-76 plane. The crew had informed the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) of the co-ordinates, Xinhua said, as well is its ice-breaker, which was heading to the area.
"Amsa was advised about the reported objects sighted by a Chinese aircraft," it said in a statement. "The reported objects are within today's search area and attempts will be made to relocate them."
Earlier on Monday, Amsa - which is co-ordinating search efforts - warned that conditions in the search area were expected to deteriorate.
Jennifer Pak reports from Kuala Lumpur on a cycling show of support for families and friends of those on board the missing plane
Warren Truss, Australia's acting prime minister while Tony Abbott is abroad, said that a tropical cyclone north of the search area could "stir up less favourable weather" for the search.
The search for flight MH370 has been in two large corridors - one stretching to the north-west of the last known location in the Malacca Straits and one to the south-west.
However, none of the countries on the northern corridor have reported any radar contact, and the Australian and Chinese satellite images of possible debris in the south Indian Ocean have concentrated the search there.
On Sunday, French officials said radar echoes from a satellite also identified possible debris in the south Indian Ocean.
The objects identified by the French satellite were "about 850 km north of our current search area", Mr Truss told Australian broadcaster ABC.
"That's not in the area that had been identified as the most likely place where the aircraft may have entered the sea. But having said all that we've got to check out all the options."
On Monday, the US Pacific Command said it was moving a black box locator to the region "as a precautionary measure in case a debris field is located".
The equipment, which has a "highly sensitive listening capability", detects pings from the black box while being towed behind a ship.
The move did not indicate that debris had been found, the US added, but would enable search officers to "respond as quickly as possible" if debris is seen, "since the battery life of the black box's pinger is limited".
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