Debris discovered on the coast of Mozambique, in East Africa, and believed to be part of missing flight MH370 will be sent to Australia for examination.
A tourist from the United States has found the object on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel.
The Boeing 777 disappeared almost two years ago with 239 people on board.
A man who chartered a boat off Mozambique in his search for plane debris has discovered the metre-long panel.
Blaine Alan Gibson says he believes the object he found is definitely from an aircraft and possibly from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
"I just knew that it needed to be processed. It could be from 370. It could from any of those other planes that crashed in the area. We just don't know yet. I hope that, if this does turn out to be from 370, that this can provide a clue."
The object is believed to be from a plane's horizontal stabiliser, with the words "no step" printed on its side.
Australian transport minister Darren Chester says it will soon be sent to Australia for analysis.
"It's of interest to us, obviously, because it's in the area where we've plotted the debris could end up from MH370. It's way too early to speculate, though, on the origins of the piece of metal. Time will tell whether it's come from MH370 or not. It's been secured by the Mozambique government. The intention now is to have the piece of metal transferred to Australia for assessment by Australian Transport Safety Bureau assessors."
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's Martin Dolan has been the head of the search effort off Australia.
He says his team of investigators will look at the piece of debris when it arrives in Australia.
"We would expect round about this time, almost two years after the aircraft disappeared that any wreckage would be drifting towards the east African coast and Mozambique, or some of it at least. It will be shipped to our headquarters in Canberra where we have our technical facilities, our laboratories that we use to examine aircraft wreckage and understand what it means.
Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai says there is a strong possibility the debris belongs to a Boeing 777, but he also was cautious.
"Please don't speculate because we won't know whether it is from MH370 or Boeing 777 unless we verify."
If confirmed, it would become the second piece of debris retrieved from MH 370, with the first -- a flaperon -- found on Reunion Island off Africa last year.
Darren Chester says nearly three-quarters of the search area in the southern Indian Ocean has been scoured but the wreckage remains hidden.
"We've designated a search area of 120,000 square kilometres. We're about 85,000 square kilometres into that search, and, in the absence of any further credible evidence, that would be the end of the search process from our perspective. And that's been agreed with the Chinese and Malaysian governments over the past two years."
The Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
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