Trilateral talks on search of missing Malaysian airliner starts

CANBERRA, May 5 -- The trilateral ministerial talks among China, Malaysia and Australia on the search of misalign Malaysian Airline flight MH370 started in the Parliament House in Canberra Monday morning, which is expected to cover the search arrangement in the next phase.

Upon arrival for the meeting, Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters that he is hoping the meeting will put the structure for future search in place.

"We are now going to deep sea search which requires specific assets," he said, adding that there has been many countries that want to come aboard the search operation.

He refused to comment whether the meeting will set a time frame for the search, but saying the agenda is pretty wide.

"The fact that three delegations, big delegations, are sitting down together and looking forward to (the next stage search), is already a huge achievement," he said.

Chinese Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang is the head of the Chinese delegation, while Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and Chief Coordinator of the Joint Agency Coordination Center Angus Houston are heading the Australian delegation for the talks.