THE hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will focus on the southern part of the existing search zone after a new clue to the plane’s possible location emerged, Australia said Thursday.

    Fresh information suggested the jet “may have turned south” earlier than thought, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.

    The detail came to light following “further refinement” of satellite data and as investigators attempted to map the plane’s position during a failed attempt to contact it earlier in its flight path.

    “The search area remains the same, but some of the information that we now have suggests to us that areas a little further to the south are of particular interest and priority in the search area,” he said.

    His comments came as Australia and Malaysia inked a memorandum of understanding in Canberra over the next phase of the hunt for the plane, which disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

    The plane is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean far off the west coast of Australia after mysteriously diverting off-course, but a massive air, sea and underwater search has failed to find any wreckage.

    It will focus on a dauntingly vast stretch of ocean measuring 60,000 square kilometers.

    Malaysia’s Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said Malaysia had so far spent about Aus$50 million (US$47 million) on the search.

    (SD-Agencies)