Chinese and Australian aircraft have spotted new objects in the South Indian Ocean, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has announced.

The objects have not yet been linked to the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, but authorities are growing increasingly hopeful. "At the moment, there are new leads but nothing conclusive," said Malaysia's Acting Transportation Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, at a news briefing.

Two of the objects — one grey or green and circular in shape, the other orange and rectangular — were spotted by a Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion in the search area about 2500 kilometres south-west of Perth. HMAS Success, an Australian naval vessel, is heading to the location of the objects, and it should be able to retrieve them in "the coming hours," the AMSA said.

Entire crew of HMAS Success currently keeping a lookout for objects in #MH370 search.

— AMSA News (@AMSA_News) March 24, 2014

A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 spotted two objects earlier in the day, also within the search area, with one of them said to be "relatively big." These two objects are separate from the objects reported by the Australian crew. A US Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft tried to relocate the objects but were unable to do so. A Chinese ice breaker ship is now en route to the area.

I have seen the images of 2 of the objects. Impossible to say what they are Very indistinct in photos. One white and circular

— ANDREW THOMAS (@AlJazSydANDREW) March 24, 2014

An Al Jazeera English journalist on board one of the planes reported they were different shapes and colors, and "very indistinct."

"We saw smoke flares dropped, gps locators too. HMAS Success was v close and will be trying to find and bring inboard objects now," he added.

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has so far produced several leads, including satellite images and airplane sightings of many objects floating in the ocean, but none of them have yet been directly linked to the plane.

Most recently, France provided the Malaysian government with satellite imagery that could be possible debris from Flight 370.

The United States Navy has sent a device known as a Towed Pinger Locator to the area that is able to detect the pings sent by black boxes down to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet, the Navy said. The black box on Flight 370, which has enough battery to last for 30 days, is halfway depleted.

The jet and its 239 people on board have been missing since March 8 when it took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on a flight to Beijing. All efforts to find the plane have been unsuccessful so far.

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