China search plane spots "suspicious objects" in missing jet hunt

BEIJING, March 24 (Reuters) - A Chinese search plane discovered "suspicious objects" in the southern Indian Ocean on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency reported, raising the possibility that they could be from a Malaysia Airlines

plane missing for over two weeks.

The crew of the IL-76 plane spotted two "relatively big" floating objects and several smaller white ones dispersed over several kilometers, Xinhua reported.

China has diverted its icebreaker ship, the Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, toward the location where the debris was spotted.

China has asked Australia to send its planes to the area to investigate, Xinhua said.

An official from the U.S. Seventh Fleet said they were not immediately aware of the report.

(Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan, additional reporting by Lincoln Feast in SYDNEY and Michael Martina in KUALA LUMPUR; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

((megha.rajagopalan@thomsonreuters.com)(+86 10 6627 1261)(Reuters Messaging: megha.rajagopalan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: MALAYSIA AIRLINES/DEBRIS