Australia's priority was gaining access to the crash site of downed Flight MH17 in Ukraine, not imposing sanctions on Russia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday.

The United States and Europe announced tough new sanctions targeting Russia's key financial, arms and energy sectors on Tuesday in response to Moscow's intervention in the Ukraine crisis.

Australia has issued arrest warrants for two men suspected of fighting alongside militants in Iraq and Syria, police said Wednesday, including one who reportedly posed with severed heads.

The Lebanese expat community in Sydney has played a role in forcing a top state government official to resign after he made controversial public comments in support of Israel's deadly assault on the Gaza Strip.

“The Lebanese and Arab expat communities in Sydney have managed to push Vic Alhadeff, a high-ranking government official, to resign, after he voiced support for Israel,” Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Forensic experts have identified the first of 298 people killed when flight MH17 which was shot down over Ukraine last week, the Dutch government said on Saturday.

"Today the first victim of the flight MH17 disaster was identified," the justice ministry said in a statement.

An Australian couple who lost their daughter in downed Malaysian flight MH17 visited the crash site in rebel-held east Ukraine on Saturday, the first relatives of victims to arrive at the scene.

Grief-stricken Jerzy Dyczynski and Angela Rudhart-Dyczynski's 25-year-old daughter Fatima was one of 298 victims killed when the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur flight was shot down on July 17.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Saturday said his government's treatment of a boatload of 157 asylum-seekers who have been kept at sea for weeks would underline its resolve to stop people-smuggling.

Abbott, who came to power in September promising to "stop the boats" bringing asylum-seekers from countries such as Iran and Afghanistan, said Canberra would not dodge its international and legal obligations.

A strip of white bandage on a stick in a sunflower field marked the spot where the remains of one of the 298 victims of downed Malaysian flight MH17 lay in the sun on Friday more than a week after the crash.

Combine harvesters cut down the wheat in surrounding fields in a semblance of normality at the gruesome scene -- some of them skirting pieces of the wreckage.

A group of 157 asylum-seekers in custody on the high seas for weeks will be taken to Australia and held until consular officials confirm their nationalities, ending a long stand-off, authorities said Friday.

The development follows lawyers acting for about one-third of those on board -- thought to be mostly minority ethnic Tamils from Sri Lanka -- taking their case to the High Court.

Australian troops plan to join a police contingent in helping secure the Flight MH17 crash site in Ukraine, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday, while stressing the mission would be humanitarian in nature.

Abbott has been highly critical of the response on the ground to the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane, which was carrying 298 people when it was apparently shot down in rebel-held eastern Ukraine.

U.S. President Barack Obama joined with the leaders of Australia and the Netherlands on Thursday to demand full access to the crash site of flight MH17.

Speaking in telephone calls with Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte, the leaders agreed to work for a full investigation into the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines jet last week.