KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — The search for MH370 in the Indian Ocean turned up more possible sightings of the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner today, this time of two objects — one circular and one rectangular.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed the sightings at the daily press conference this evening, and said the Australian Navy vessel, the HMAS Success, is in the vicinity and should be able to retrieve the objects within the next few hours or by tomorrow at the latest.

“A few minutes ago the Prime Minister received a call from the Prime Minister of Australia, who informed him that an Australian search aircraft had located two objects in the Australian search area, one circular and one rectangular.

“HMAS Success is in the vicinity and it is possible that the objects could be received within the next few hours, or by tomorrow morning at the latest,” he said at the 5.30pm press conference.

Earlier in the Australian Parliament, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that the HMAS Success was on scene to locate the two objects sighted by a Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion search plane.

The objects, described as a grey or green circular object and an orange rectangular object, were seen at around 2.45pm Australian time in the search area some 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth, Abbott said.

“I can advise the House that US Navy Poseidon, a second Royal Australian Air Force Orion and a Japanese Orion are also on route to or in the search area. Planes and ships continue to search the area for any sign of the missing aircraft,” he said in his parliamentary statement, while stressing that there is no guarantee that the objects are related to the missing plane.

Hishammuddin today said that two aircraft from Japan and one from the UAE left Subang airport today and are en route to assist the search in the southern corridor, where six Malaysian ships with ship-borne helicopters and 10 Chinese vessels are currently deployed.

The defence minister added that Turkmenistan is the latest country in the northern corridor to have confirmed that they have not had any sightings of MH370 on their radar.

This adds to the list of countries within the northern corridor, stretching from Thailand to Khazakstan, that said they have not picked up the plane on their radar systems and effectively narrows down the search for the plane in the area.

The two objects spotted today are the latest to be sighted by search teams scouring the Indian Ocean — which falls under the southern corridor of the international operation to find the Malaysia Airlines-owned Boeing 777-200.

Yesterday, Malaysian authorities revealed in a statement that French satellites had on Friday captured radar images of objects potentially linked to the plane “in the vicinity of the southern corridor”, though no details were given.

Australian officials also said yesterday that a civilian aircraft assisting in the search in the area spotted a wooden cargo pallet along with belts or straps, but were unable to recover the object.

Last week, Chinese satellite imagery dated March 18 discovered possible debris from the plane some 120km from the first area where satellites first detected potential debris in the Indian Ocean.

Search parties, however, could not find and recover the potential debris fragment, which was estimated to have measured 22m by 13m.