BEIJING, March 12 -- A group of Chinese and Malaysian officials met in Beijing on Wednesday on the Malaysia Airlines missing flight MH370.

According to a written statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Hansheng, Vice Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China Xia Xinghua, Vice Mayor of Beijing Zhang Yankun joined the meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister's Special Envoy to China Ong Ka Ting, Malaysian ambassador to China Iskandar Sarudin, and representatives from Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department and Malaysia Airlines.

The Chinese officials expressed appreciation for Malaysia's search and rescue efforts since the flight lost contact on Saturday.

The Chinese side requested the Malaysian government as well as Malaysia Airlines to release authorized information in a timely manner, update the latest progress of their work, respond to doubts and appeals of the passengers' relatives, and console the relatives and the public.

China will actively coordinate and assist Malaysia's efforts, said the Chinese officials.

The Malaysian side said they were strengthening coordination and speeding up search efforts, adding they were sympathetic to the pain of the passengers' relatives.

They vowed to hold regular briefings to update the latest information of the incident, and do their utmost to meet the requirement of the passengers' relatives.

The international search for missing flight MH370 entered its fifth day Wednesday, and multinational search operations for the missing plane has extended to land. But the whereabouts of flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200, remains unknown.