Australian PM confident of recovering MH17 victims' remains

Canberra, July 31: Australian Prime Minister

on Thursday said that he was confident about recovering the remains of MH17 victims despite constant blockade of the Australian-Dutch police mission to access the crash site.

The investigators were forced to abandon their mission for a fourth consecutive day because of continued fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels, Xinhua reported.

"I'm not sure of it, but I am confident of it," Abbott said.

Abbott said investigators are a long way from giving up all hope of ever reaching the crash site.

"We will not readily be deterred here. We are determined," Abbott said, but added that Australia would not take unnecessary risks in recovering the bodies.

Flight MH17, a Boeing 777, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed after being hit by a missile in Ukraine near the Russian border July 17, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.

This is the second major tragedy for Malaysia Airlines this year after flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on board went missing while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing March 8.

The flight remains untraced till date despite intense international search efforts.

IANS