CANBERRA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Australia's maritime search and rescue agency said Monday they were expanding the area to be covered in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it was tasking 10 aircraft Monday up from eight the day before to search for objects that were possibly related to the missing aircraft.

"Both civil aircraft engaged by AMSA and military aircraft from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, China and Japan are all assisting in the ongoing search operation to provide the best chance of locating objects captured by satellite imagery with the naked eye," AMSA said in a statement.

The search would be split into two areas covering a total 68, 500 square km -- up from 59,000 square km the day before -- about 2,500 km away from the southwestern city of Perth.

AMSA was using all satellite imagery and information available to readjust its search area.

The weather forecast in the search area was expected to deteriorate with possible rain.

AMSA reiterated this was "a challenging search operation."

"The flight has been missing since March 8 and AMSA continues to hold the gravest of concerns for the passengers and crew on board the missing flight," said the statement.

Two Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft from China had already departed to the search area and two P3 Orion aircraft from Japan would depart later.

A U.S.Navy P8 Poseidon would also joint the search, along with two Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion aircraft.

Three civil aircraft would take part in Monday's search - two Bombardier Global Express planes and an Airbus aircraft carrying a total of 20 State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers from Western Australia as air observers.

Australian navy vessel HMAS Success remained in the search area and Chinese navy ships were en route to the search area to assist.

Searchers are now looking for objects spotted in three sets of satellite photos: U.S. images taken on March 16, Chinese images taken two days later, and French images, which were still being studied, that emerged on Sunday.

They were also trying to find a wooden pallet, packing straps and other unidentified objects that were spotted from an aircraft on Saturday, so the items could be recovered.