Vietnam's Frontline Command announced today that it has suspended its air search for missing Malaysian airliner's flight MH370 and scaled back a sea search as it waited for Malaysia to clarify the potential new direction of the multi-national hunt.

Malaysia has expanded the hunt for the missing plane into the Andaman Sea, hundreds of kilometres to the northwest of the original search radius.

But it has denied a report that the plane with 239 people on board had been detected far from its planned flight path. A Malaysian newspaper said radar had last detected the plane over the Strait of Malacca off western Malaysia.