Part in Mauritius came from MH370: ATSB

Australian air crash investigators have confirmed an aircraft part found washed ashore the island of Mauritius came from missing flight MH370.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the item found in May was a trailing edge splice strap from a Boeing 777 left outboard flap.

A work order number on the part confirmed it was from the Malaysia Airlines plane, which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite an extensive search of the Southern Ocean, the aircraft wreckage has not been found.

But a number of parts that have washed up on Indian Ocean islands have been identified as coming from MH370.

In mid-September, the ATSB confirmed a piece of wreckage discovered on the island of Pemba, off the coast of Tanzania, was from MH370.

The latest piece was collected by a member of the Malayisan MH370 investigation team and delivered to the ATSB for identification.

Transport Minister Darren Chester said this was the third piece of debris conclusively linked to MH370 and it confirmed the focus of the search in the southern Indian Ocean.

But it provided no information that could be used to determine the aircaft's location, he said.

At a meeting in July, ministers from Australia, Malaysia and China agreed to suspend the search if the aircraft was not found in the current search area and if no new, credible information emerged indicating its location.

"The search for MH370 is continuing and we remain hopeful the aircraft will be located," he said in a statement.