MELBOURNE, July 23 -- Australian government on Wednesday reassured its commitment on the search operation for the missing Malaysian flight MH370.

In a statement released by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), it said Prime Minister Tony Abbott had appointed the chief coordinator Angus Houston as his special envoy to lead Australia's efforts on the ground in Ukraine to help recover, identify and repatriate Australians killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

However, this does not interrupt the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared on March 8 on a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, it said, adding the Australian government "remains fully committed to conducting a thorough undersea search of the likely impact zone in the Indian Ocean".

According to the statement, while Houston leads the country's MH17 efforts in Ukraine, Deputy Coordinator Judith Zielke will oversee the operations of the JACC on the search for MH370.

The Australian-contracted Fugro Equator and the Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen are currently doing bathymetric survey of the vast possible impact area. The underwater search is likely to commence in early September and would need up to 12 months to complete.