Cost for hunting missing Malaysia Airlines 370 running into millions

The cost of month-long search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet 370 has run into millions.

The US bill alone has run into the millions of dollars, and some countries such as China have devoted more ships and planes to the effort than the Americans have.

Australia is spending more than half a million dollars a day on just one ship it has in the Indian Ocean, telegraph.com.au reports.

On Monday, nine military planes, three civil aircraft and 14 ships were searching a 234,000-square-kilometre area, Australian officials coordinating the search said.

Malaysia has repeatedly declined to answer questions about the cost of the search.

The US Department of Defense allocated 4.3 million dollars to help search for the plane. Spokesman Col Steve Warren said that between March 8 and March 24, it had spent 3.2 million dollars.

According to the report, the Pentagon has allocated another 3.6 million dollars to cover the cost of a towed pinger locator, used to detect underwater signals from aircraft black boxes, and an underwater autonomous vehicle, which can look for wreckage deep below the ocean surface.

Australia's defence department said its direct cost of using its ship the HMAS Success in the search is about 550,000 dollars a day, and another vessel, the HMAS Toowoomba, costs about 380,000 dollars a day.

Japan's defence ministry said it could not provide a figure because the search was continuing. The cost of the search operation was believed to fall within the 9.2 million dollars budgeted for emergency relief for the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the report added.