SYDNEY, July 21 -- Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Monday he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the MH17 investigation and heard "all the right things".

"And now he has to be as good as his word," Abbott told Macquarie Radio 2GB. "And I will be speaking regularly to the Russian President to do my best to hold him to his word."

Abbott said it was a priority for the 37 Australian victims, who were killed in Thursday's airline crash, be treated with respect, and for an independent body to conduct a thorough investigation.

"Then of course, we have to punish the guilty," he said. "We have to do our best to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice".

Abbott said although some experts had been given access to the crash site, the situation was still completely unacceptable.

"The site is being treated more like a garden clean-up than a forensic investigation," he said. "The wreckage has been picked over, it's been trashed, it's been trampled".

Abbott said an Australian military aircraft was on standby to " play our part to ensure that we get justice for the dead and closure for the living".

In a television interview on Sunday,Abbott said if Putin wanted to be a friend of Australia, "if he wants to be a friend of decency and humanity, all assistance that he might be able to offer would be deeply appreciated at this time".

The Kremlin's website also confirmed the conversation between Putin and Abbott, with the Russian president "expressing his sincere condolences on the death of Australian citizens in the crash of an airliner".

The website statement added that Russia had taken steps to promote an international investigation into the circumstances of the crash and "both sides stressed the importance to the completion of the investigation to avoid politicised statements in connection with the tragedy".

It concluded by saying that Putin and Abbott had "agreed to continue contact".