RPT--Malaysia briefs passengers' families before announcement on missing plane

(Repeats fixing headline)

KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 (Reuters) - Malaysian authorities are briefing families of passengers of a jetliner missing for more than two weeks before an announcement due by Prime Minister Najib Razak just minutes away, a government official said.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after take-off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board on March 8.

No confirmed sighting of the plane has been made since.

(Reporting by Niki Koswanage, Writing by Nick Macfie)

Keywords: MALAYSIA AIRLINES/BRIEFING