Authorities will deploy an underwater drone to conduct sonar searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
The joint agency co-ordination centre chief, Angus Houston, said on Monday that no pings had been detected since last Tuesday and it was now time for the next step in the search.
He has also revealed an oil slick had been detected in the search area.
A sample has been taken and will be tested when it arrives ashore.
The Australian Defence Force vessel Ocean Shield will cease searching with its towed pinger locator and deploy the autonomous underwater vehicle Bluefin 21 as soon as possible to search the seafloor using its side-scan sonar.
Each mission will take a minimum of 24 hours to complete, including the downloading of data.
In mission number one – to commence on Monday evening – it will cover an area of 40 square kilometres.
He says the sub cannot go any deeper than 4,500 metres and it is important to be realistic about its prospects.
"It may be very difficult to find something," he said.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said it would be "a number of days" until the two litres of oil collected could be conclusively tested.
"I stress the source of the oil is yet to be determined," he said.
Houston said the four signals, believed to have originated from the aircraft's black box flight data recorders, still constituted the most promising lead.
Analysis of these signals had allowed determination of a reduced and manageable search area
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