CHINA has offered Australia $20 million to maintain its search for missing airliner MH370, and the many Chinese nationals it had on board.

Chinese news agency Xinhau News reported Premier Li Keqiang today held a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the 10-nation ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

#BREAKING: Chinese Premier #LiKeqiang announces input of 20 mln Australian dollars to continue #MH370 search pic.twitter.com/Cgc1wt0v7K — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) November 21, 2015

The Boeing 777-200ER with 239 people on board vanished from radar shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport early in the morning of March 8 last year.

An extensive search of the Indian Ocean has so far proved fruitless.

The $20 million is intended to encourage Australia to continue the search, the Chinese news agency reports

Mr Turnbull arrived in Kuala Lumpur for a program of bilateral talks on Saturday, meeting leaders from China and Cambodia, and was expected to meet representatives from South Korea and Vietnam.

Meeting China’s Premier Li Keqiang, Mr Turnbull remarked on the free trade agreement, a deal already seeing great benefits, he said, the visit last year of President Xi Jinping and co-operation between naval forces.

“There is intense co-operation and growing understanding between Australia and China,” Mr Turnbull said.

#BREAKING Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announces input of 20 million Australian dollars to continue #MH370 search pic.twitter.com/6B1R8eOrih — CCTVNEWS (@cctvnews) November 21, 2015

Longstanding disputes over South China Sea territorial claims also loom over the Kuala Lumpur talks.

Tomorrow, Mr Turnbull is due to meet Mr Najib and join the expanded 18-country East Asia Summit with US President Barack Obama and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi among others.

The East Asia Summit: — comprises the 10 ASEAN countries: Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the US.