Search for MH370: full coverageWhat we now know about MH370
Australia will continue to lead the search into missing flight MH370 following confirmation that wreckage washed up on an Indian Ocean island was part of a wing from the plane.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed the search "must go on" and said that the discovery indicated the plane had crashed close to the place they had previously thought it had. 
"What we have found in the West Indian Ocean does seem to indicate that the plane did come down more or less where we thought it did and it suggests for the first time we might be a little bit closer to solve this baffling mystery."
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed on Thursday morning that a Boeing 777 wing segment discovered on Reunion Island was from MH370. It was the first substantial breakthrough in the international search for the plane which vanished on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing 17 months ago.
Australia has spent more than $100 million on the mission so far.
"I believe it is appropriate because not only were there six Australians on that plane, but millions of Australians - nearly every Australian - at some point in time is an air traveller,"  Mr Abbott said.
"We owe it to the hundreds of millions of people who use out skies to ensure their travel is as safe as it possibly can be, to try to get to the bottom of this terrible mystery."

 Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in Kuala Lumpur that the debris would help give a "better idea" of the length of the search but was unable to say how long it might take to find the rest of the plane.
"This is a very large inhospitable section of ocean in the southern Indian Ocean," she said. "It is a huge task???I can't give an estimate of how long this will take but Australia will continue to play a lead role."
Ms Bishop said the debris would give aviation experts information on how far it had drifted, ocean currents and wind patterns "and then they can work back from there".
She said the designated search area is consistent with the barnacle-encrusted wing part washing up almost 4000 kilometres from the search area on Reunion Island.
"At least it is a piece of evidence and I am sure that more assumptions can come from this and hopefully we will find answers for the families of those who have been waiting for such a long time, to hear something of what happened to MH370."
While the France-led investigation team had decided to continue analysing the wreckage for further confirmation it was part of MH370, she said MH370 was the only Boeing 777 unaccounted for.
"On the assumption that it is from MH30 we will need to review the search area," Ms Bishop said.
"I am pleased to say the finding on Reunion are consistent with the area we have been focussed on."
Ms Bishop said she would "leave to the experts" the question of when to give up searching for the black box and other parts of the plane.
She said the families and friends of the 239 people on board have been through what must be an "unbearable time".
"I am aware our consular team have been in touch with the Australian families," she said.
Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Australia respected the Malaysian government's confirmation but acknowledged there remained "a very small element of doubt" the wreckage was not from MH370.
The barnacles on and paint samples from the wreckage were being examined for details such as its time in the water and its repair history that "might prove beyond any doubt" it was part of the missing plane.
He said the wreckage had been in the water for "too long" for experts to use it to target exactly where it came apart from the aircraft and how it floated in that direction.
"It doesn't provide any real detail about where we should be searching," Mr Truss said.

 The underwater search is currently focused on a 120,000 square kilometre area in the southern Indian Ocean, after CSIRO drift modelling confirmed on Wednesday that ocean currents and wind could have carried debris from that area to La Reunion.
The debris added to clues about the crash site from satellite data and messages the plane sent to the engine manufacturer "which pinpoint the aircraft's position at various locations including the moment when the fuel ran out. That is the vital information about identifying the search area. That's been re-examined by experts over the months, that's helped us to refine the area." 
"We're concentrating more in the more southerly parts of the search area but all of that analysis has conclusively come to the view that we're searching to the right place," Mr Truss said. 
Everything that washed up in recent days on nearby shores of eastern Africa, Madagascar and other islands in the region were now "of more interest".
Although "most of it will have nothing whatever to do with MH370 but it is possible that among all that material something that is important will be found and that's a very good reason for there to be active searching in that area at the moment".
with Lindsay Murdoch
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