KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — Australia is not looking to discontinue the fruitless search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a spokesman for Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.

According to an article on The Australian news website yesterday, the spokesman denied a recent report claiming that it, along with China and Malaysia, was considering plans to stop the hunt for the missing plane.

“Discussions are not under way to call off the search. Discussions are ongoing about the search,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.

International news agency Reuters published a report yesterday quoting Truss as saying that the search cannot continue forever and discussions on whether to call it off “are already under way”.

Reuters cited Truss, who is also Australia’s transport minister, as saying that a decision would have to be taken on whether to continue into the vast 1.1 million sq km area around the primary search zone if nothing is found.

Discussions had already begun about what to do in that event, including the possibility that the search might be called off, he said in the article.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 last year, dropping off radar coverage not long after taking off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing.

There were 239 passengers and crew on board the plane that remains missing till today, with no indication as to its resting place despite months of searching.