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Abbott vows to solve plane 'riddle'

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says authorities are "throwing everything we have" at the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

He was speaking as weather conditions in the southern Indian Ocean improved, allowing the search to resume.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) says 12 aircraft are taking part in Wednesday's operations.

The plane vanished on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

"We owe it to the families, we owe it to an anxious world to do everything we can to finally locate some wreckage and to do whatever we can to solve the riddle of this extraordinarily ill-fated flight," Mr Abbott said.

He also said Australia was ready to assist the families of the missing passengers in any possible way.

"There's a terrible trauma involved - there's the uncertainty, there's the anguish. It's just an unspeakable time for these people and if they want to come to Australia we'll make them welcome and we'll do everything we can to assist," he said.

China has sent a special envoy, Zhang Yesui, to Malaysia, the official Xinhua news agency reports.

Mr Zhang met Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to discuss the search, and will go on to meet Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's acting transport minister.

Four Chinese ships and one military aircraft are taking part in the operation in the southern Indian Ocean. Most of the, whose passengers were mostly Chinese.

Australia has been co-ordinating the multinational search that is now focused on a remote area of ocean some 1,500 miles (2,500km) to the south-west of the Australian city of Perth.

The Australian parliament in the capital, Canberra, observed a moment of silence on Wednesday for passengers of the missing flight, which included six Australians.

Some relatives of the passengers are refusing to accept their loved ones have died, saying no wreckage has been found.

There were angry scenes in Beijing after the Malaysian prime minister said analysis of satellite data showed the plane had almost certainly ended its journey in the southern Indian Ocean.

On Tuesday, dozens of Chinese relatives staged a protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing to demand more information. Of the 239 people on board flight MH370, 153 were Chinese nationals.

Search area narrowed

Rough seas and heavy rain forced the air and sea search to be suspended on Tuesday, but on Wednesday morning, Amsa said conditions had improved, and posted on its Facebook page that the first flights had resumed.

It said seven military and five civilian planes would be taking part and a total of six countries were now involved - Australia, New Zealand, the US, Japan, China and the South Korea.

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