MH370 Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak defended last night's hastily convened press conference to announce that the MH370 flight has ended up in the Indian Ocean.

He said he did not want to be seen withholding information from the families of those on the flight.

Speaking at the Parliament today while tabling a motion to express grief over the loss of the Boeing 777-200ER, which disappeared from civilian radar on March 8, Najib said he had the "responsibility" to inform the families regarding any new information. 

He also stressed that the country will not start mourning the loss of the flight until wreckage of the plane was found.

"We are very committed to continue the search and rescue operation until we have detected traces of the plane," Najib said.

He said that the national flag at Parliament would be lowered to half-mast only then.

"I understand there are many questions that need to be answered. And we will only get the answers after the black box is found. Only that can give us answers," he said in a ten minute long speech in moving the motion.

He also stressed that the government had never hidden any information from the families of those on board.

"The government has never stopped information from reaching the families," he said.

Najib also said that the MH370 issue should not have been politicised, especially in the “Kajang by-election”.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a press conference this morning expressed his condolences for the families of the 239 passengers on board the ill-fated flight.

However, he asked Prime Minister Najib to be “more transparent” in revealing how the government came to the conclusion that the flight had crashed into the Indian Ocean.

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang, who also at the press conference, said that Najib’s announcement yesterday was “closure without closure” for the families.

“There were 1,001 questions yesterday, and now with the announcement, there are 1,002 unanswered questions,” he said.