LYON (AFP) - Interpol on Friday said it will send a team in the next 48 hours to help identify victims killed by the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in east Ukraine.

Experts from Interpol's disaster identification squad and missing people's units will be deployed to the site, where 298 died after the apparent downing of the airliner in the rebel-held region.

"International cooperation is essential in ensuring their accurate, dignified and speedy recovery and identification," said Secretary General Ronald Noble in a statement. "Having spoken with Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, I have assured him of our continued assistance for as long as it is required."

Interpol agents will join some 30 observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe who arrived at the disaster site on Friday to help supervise the handling of the remains of victims from at least nine different countries.

Teams from the international police agency helped to identify victims after the tsunami in Asia a decade ago and the crash of the Air France AF 447 in 2009.