The first dive by a mini-submarine hunting for Malaysian jet MH370 detected nothing of interest, with the mission aborted after breaching the machine's maximum operating depth, the U.S. Navy said Tuesday.

The unmanned Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 was undamaged and set for a second sonar sweep of the Indian Ocean seabed during the day, weather permitting.

Thousands of homes were without power and residents of worst-hit Cooktown were warned clean water was about to run out as cyclone Ita rolled along Australia's Barrier Reef coast Sunday.

Downgraded from a category four to a category one storm after making landfall late Friday, Ita continued to bring heavy weather as it tracked along the coast, with roads, power and water cut and warnings of flash flooding from torrential rain.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday he is "very confident" that signals detected in the search for Flight MH370 are from the aircraft's black box, whose batteries are waning fast more than a month after the plane vanished.

"We have very much narrowed down the search area and we are very confident the signals are from the black box," Abbott said, while warning that the transmissions were "starting to fade."

The hunt for more black box "pings" from missing Malaysian airliner MH370 narrowed Thursday to a specific patch of remote ocean after the logging of fresh signals raised hopes wreckage will soon be found.

With dying batteries after more than a month since the Boeing 777 vanished, the head of the Australian-led search Angus Houston wants to pursue the listening operation to help pinpoint the plane's exact location before sending down a submersible.

Two fresh signals have been picked up in the search for missing Malaysian flight MH370, raising hopes Wednesday that wreckage will be found within days even as black box batteries start to expire.

Australian ship Ocean Shield detected the signals Tuesday to match a pair of transmissions picked up over the weekend that have been analyzed as consistent with signals from the plane's flight data recorder, the head of the search said.

South Korea and Australia signed a free trade deal Tuesday which will scrap almost all tariffs within a decade while immediately lifting levies on some key exports, including South Korean cars and Australian wine.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there was "huge untapped potential" in trade between the two countries as the deal was signed, wrapping up four years of negotiations.

Closer defense ties between Japan and Australia should not raise concerns in regional superpower China, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Tuesday.

Canberra and Tokyo struck a major agreement Monday to enhance trade and security ties, elevating the bilateral relationship to a new level.

New Zealand's opposition on Tuesday accused Prime Minister John Key of trying to use Britain's visiting royals to boost his popularity ahead of a general election.

Prince William, wife Kate and baby Prince George arrived in New Zealand on Monday and were greeted by Key at Wellington Airport before meeting the conservative leader again at an official welcoming ceremony.

Japan and Australia are set to announce a free trade deal at a summit of the nations' leaders later Monday, reports said, after similar talks with the U.S. ran into trouble.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and visiting Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott were to announce a basic agreement on the long-awaited trade pact which follows years of talks, major Japanese newspapers including the top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

An Australian navy ship has detected new underwater signals consistent with aircraft "black boxes", the chief of the MH370 search said Monday, calling it the "most promising lead" yet in the month-old hunt for the missing plane.

Retired Australian defense force chief Angus Houston said the acoustics emanating from deep down in the Indian Ocean showed that the multinational search by ships and planes seemed to be "very close to where we need to be".