MH370 The search for wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean has no deadline but is not endless, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today.

He was speaking as better weather allowed the effort to ramp up again with ships and planes from six nations in the hunt.

Nothing has been recovered from the search area 2,500 kilometres south-west of Perth despite several sightings of unidentified flotsam.

“We’re just going to keep on looking because we owe it to people to do everything we can to resolve this riddle,” Abbott said. “It’s not absolutely open-ended, but it’s not something we will lightly abandon.”

Twelve aircraft were in Perth ready to fly to the 80,000-square-kilometre search site, an Austria-sized area halfway to Antarctica.

Abbott said the relatives of the mostly Chinese passengers on the lost Boeing 777-200 were welcome to come to Australia to be nearer the search. He said visa fees would be waived.

- dpa