Australian, Malaysian and Chinese officials made the decision today (July 22) after a meeting in Malaysia, during which they acknowledged "the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading".

There is currently less than 10,000sq km of the 120,000sq km search zone left to be examined.

The countries had previously agreed to end the search in the southern Indian Ocean if no "credible new information" was detected.

After the meeting, Malaysian transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai told a press conference: “In the absence of new credible evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively agreed to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000-km search."

"I must emphasise that this does mean we are giving up on the search for MH370," he added.

There are current no firm details for the circumstances in which a search might be resumed, the BBC reports.

Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew onboard.

So far the hunt for the aircraft has amounted to nearly 180m Australian dollars (£101m) worth of costs and is the most expensive in aviation history.

Currently no objects connected to MH370 has been discovered in the search area, although pieces of debris confirmed to be from a Boeing 777 have been found on a number of islands thousands of miles from the search zone.