KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 -- An international team is intensifying and expanding its effort in the search of a missing plane, a Malaysian official said here Monday afternoon, more than 60 hours after it lost contact with air traffic control last Saturday.

"Our focus right now is to try to locate the aircraft," Hishammuddin Hussein, acting transport minister told a latest news conference as search and rescue teams continue their search in a vast area that includes the Andaman Sea as well as the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea.

Four P-3C Orions, with capability for long-range searches, offered by the United States, Australia and New Zealand, are now in the search area, the minister said, but he admitted that little progress had been made in finding the missing plane.

Flight MH370, operated by a Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777-200 carrying 12 crew members and 227 passengers including 154 Chinese, lost contact with air traffic control early on Saturday on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Some objects believed to come from the ill-fated flight were found earlier, but were later dismissed by authorities as irrelevant items.

Referring to the investigation into the manifest, Hussein said a study of the whole manifest has been carried out and sent to relevant authorities for further analysis.

"We have done a study on the whole manifest, of all the passengers concerned," he said. "I think we have the capacity to actually detail every single aspect of those passengers involved."

"But this information must get to relevant authorities, which it has; it got to be digested. When the time comes it will not affect the ongoing investigations, you guys (reporters) will be the first to know."

In response to a question about the two passengers using fake passports, the official said he has met with U.S. intelligence officials to discuss biometrics and visuals.