The current 120,000 sq km (46,330 sq miles) search area in the Indian Ocean is due to be exhausted by January, with no sign of the missing jet.

Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them Chinese, en route to Beijing from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. Its whereabouts have become one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

The recommendation to extend the search follows a meeting in November between crash investigators, aviation experts and government representatives from Malaysia, China and Australia.

"There is a high degree of confidence that the previously identified underwater area searched to date does not contain the missing aircraft," the ATSB report said.

"Given the elimination of this area, the experts identified an area of approximately 25,000 sq km as the area with the highest probability of containing the wreckage of the aircraft. The experts concluded that, if this area were to be searched, prospective areas for locating the aircraft wreckage, based on all the analysis to date, would be exhausted."

The new area is to the north of the current search zone that has been the focus of the A$200 million ($145 million) search so far.

REUTERS