Update | China spots new object in hunt for Malaysia Airlines jet as tropical cyclone warning issued

The international search for missing flight MH370 is focusing on a new location in the south Indian Ocean after China released a satellite image of what could be wreckage from the airliner.

More than two weeks after the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared, the new image shows an object 120 kilometres southwest of where suspected wreckage was previously spotted.

But deteriorating weather and a warning of the approach of Tropical Cyclone Gillian in the remote area is hampering search efforts.

Released by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, the new grainy black and white image - captured on March 18 - shows a 22-metre-long, 13-metre-wide object.

It is the second such sighting in the southern corridor search area in the past week after Australia released satellite images of suspected debris last Sunday. "Captured by the high-definition earth observation satellite Gaofen-1 at about 12am on March 18 Beijing time, the imagery spotted the object at 44 degrees, 57 minutes south latitude, and 90 degrees, 13 minutes east longitude, in the southern Indian Ocean," the administration said.

"The location of the suspicious object is along the southern corridor that missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 might have taken, and about 120 kilometres south by west from the location of a suspicious object Australia found before."