Fighting Halts Police Visit To MH17 Crash Site

Plans for a team of unarmed Dutch and Australian police officers to visit the site of the Malaysia Airlines plane disaster have been cancelled.

Fighting around the site of the airliner downed in eastern Ukraine prevented the visit.

The deputy head of a monitoring team from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Alexander Hug, said it was too dangerous for them to go there from their current location in the rebel-held city of Donetsk.

The vast crash scene, which covers 20 square miles, mostly fields, is currently controlled by pro-Russian separatists who are battling Ukrainian government forces in a months-long conflict.

A Ukrainian defence official said his troops were trying to clear the areas around the site near the village of Grabovo from rebels.

There was reportedly fighting at several locations, including near the town of Debaltseve, 15 miles north-west of the crash scene.

Dozens of international officers, in a Dutch-led team, want to secure the site for investigators to carry out a forensic examination and help recover the remains of victims.

Part of the plane's fuselage

Crash investigators have been unable to "properly deploy" and collect evidence due to ongoing security concerns, says the Malaysian prime minister's office.

But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has ruled out sending an armed international mission to secure the site.

"Getting the military upper hand for an international mission in this area is, according to our conclusion, not realistic," he told reporters in The Hague.

Alexander Hug said the police mission will reconsider resuming operations if security improves, which could happen as early as Monday.

"We continue to reassess the situation continuously and we will start to redeploy tomorrow morning back to the site if the situation changes," Mr Hug said.

All 298 people on board flight MH17, heading to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, were killed in the disaster on July 17.

Hundreds of victims' remains have been taken to Holland for identification

Western countries blame the rebels for shooting down the airliner with a missile, mistaking it for a Ukrainian plane.

But the separatists deny any involvement in the downed jet.

The remains of 227 victims have been taken in coffins on flights from Ukraine to the Netherlands for identification.

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said more remains are still at the site and he expected police would only spend two or three weeks there.

"This is a volatile situation," he said. "This is contested ground and we don't want to be there any longer than is absolutely necessary."

Dozens of Malaysian police are also expected to head to the crash site later this week.

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