COLOMBO, March 18 -- Sri Lanka will provide any assistance possible to countries including China searching for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, an official said here on Tuesday.

"We have assured the Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka that if any assistance is requested Sri Lanka will do its best to provide it. Sri Lanka and China have had long and very vibrant relations, while the search for MH370 is now very much a humanitarian operation," Ministry of Public Communications Director General A.M. J. Sadiq told Xinhua.

Sadiq noted that the Malaysian government was given flyover clearance over Sri Lanka's airspace because it had been the first country to ask for such.

He added that the Chinese mission in Sri Lanka had also requested the local government to comply with the request.

"We will also provide or share any information coming our way if it concerns the missing jet," Sadiq went onto say.

Sri Lanka has already allowed search parties looking for the vanished Malaysian Airline flight to use Sri Lanka's airspace as the hunt expands into the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lanka's government had been approached to provide assistance by the Malaysian embassy in Colombo.

The Malaysian authorities had requested the use of Sri Lanka's airspace for flights from the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia.