Australian Deputy PM's office denies report about discussions to call off MH370 search

The office of Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss on Tuesday denied the report by Reuters on Australia being in discussions with Malaysia and China to stop the operation of searching the missing Malaysia Airline flight MH370.

In an email received by Xinhua, Truss' Senior Media Advisor Brett Heffernan said the Reuters story had quoted Truss, "but they have overstated the lead in a big way".

The lead of the Reuters story, dated Canberra March 1, reads " The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 cannot go on forever, Australia's deputy prime minister said, and discussions are already under way between Australia, China and Malaysia as to whether to call off the hunt within weeks."

"To be clear ... we are not in discussions to call off the search," Heffernan said in the email addressing to reporters.

"Discussions are NOT underway to call off the search. Discussions are ongoing about the search," he said. "We remain cautiously optimistic about finding the plane ... with over 40 percent of the priority search area covered so far."

"If, however, the plane is not found at the completion of the search (expected around May 2015), then discussions will be held between Australia, Malaysia, China and potentially others on the next steps."

Currently, four ships contracted by Australian and Malaysian governments are undergoing underswater search in a priority area of 60,000 square kilometers off the city of Perth in western Australia.

The latest report dated Feb. 25 by the Joint Agency Coordination Center for the search of MH370 showed that over 24, 000 square kilometres of the seafloor have been searched, which is around 40 percent of the priority search area. Endi