Pham Quy Tieu

Search planes were flying on Thursday to an area where a Chinese satellite has seen objects that could be debris from the Malaysian airliner missing for almost six days, but those waters had been checked before and nothing found, officials said.

"We've decided to temporarily suspend some search and rescue activities, pending information from Malaysia," deputy minister of transport Pham Quy Tieu said, adding that boats were still searching the area, but on a smaller scale.

Vietnam said on Wednesday it was scaling back the search in Vietnamese waters for a Malaysian Airlines jetliner, now missing for four days, a senior Vietnamese official said.

Search planes were flying on Thursday to an area where a Chinese satellite has seen objects that could be debris from the Malaysian airliner missing for almost six days, but those waters had been checked before and nothing found, officials said.

"We've decided to temporarily suspend some search and rescue activities, pending information from Malaysia," deputy minister of transport Pham Quy Tieu said, adding that boats were still searching the area, but on a smaller scale.

Vietnam said on Wednesday it was scaling back the search in Vietnamese waters for a Malaysian Airlines jetliner, now missing for four days, a senior Vietnamese official said.