BEIJING — China's civil aviation chief said on Thursday that there was no proof that floating objects in the South China Sea seen by satellite images were connected to a missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft.

"Chinese satellites have found smoke and floating objects ... At present we cannot confirm this is related to the missing aircraft," Li Jiaxiang told reporters on the sidelines of China's annual meeting of parliament.

Li added that there was also no evidence the Malaysian military was concealing information about the missing flight.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday that a government website had satellite images of suspected debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane off the southern tip of Vietnam.

The report Wednesday said the images from around 11 a.m. on March 9 appear to show "three suspected floating objects" of varying sizes.

The report included coordinates of a location in the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia, which apparently was part of the original search area after the plane disappeared early Saturday. The images were posted on a national defense technology website.

The Xinhua report said the largest of the suspected pieces of debris measures about 24 meters (79 feet) by 22 meters (72 feet).

The search for the missing plane, which left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing, has encompassed 35,800 square miles (92,600 square kilometers) of Southeast Asia and on Wednesday expanded toward India.

Two-thirds of the passengers on the flight were Chinese, and the Chinese government has put increasing pressure on Malaysian officials to find solve the mystery of the plane's disappearance.