Malaysian transport minister to visit Australia in wake of airline tragedies

Malaysia's transport minister will visit Australia on Monday to pledge his government's commitment to find flight MH370, still missing after more than five months.

The visit will come four days after Malaysia stopped to mourn the passengers and crew who died in the other Malaysia Airlines tragedy in Ukraine.

Forty-three Malaysian citizens were killed when flight MH17 was blasted from the sky over Ukraine on July 17.

The remains of 20 people arrived home in Malaysia on Friday.

Transport minister Liow Tiong Lai moved to reassure the families of the other Malaysia Airlines tragedy - MH370 - that the search for the vanished flight would go on.

"To reiterate, the search for MH370 remains a top priority for the government of Malaysia and we will continue to commit the appropriate resources required for that effort," he said in a statement today.

Mr Lai indicated he would be in Australia on Monday for a series of meetings, including with deputy prime minister Warren Truss and the Chinese transport minister.

The Malaysian government will sign a memorandum of understanding with it's Australian counterpart to "solidify the collaboration for the search for MH370", he added.

Six Australians were on the flight from Kuala Lumpur when it disappeared in March.

This week Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed an underwater search for MH370 would resume off Western Australia in about a month.

Australia has signed a contract worth more than $50 million with Dutch company Fugro, which will use two vessels towing submerged vehicles to scan the search area, which is about the size of Tasmania.