KIEV (AFP) - Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels have agreed to set up a security zone around the crash site of a Malaysian jet that was apparently shot down in the separatist east, Ukraine's security service chief said on Saturday.

Internationally mediated talks "concluded with an agreement to set up a 20km security zone so that Ukraine could fulfil the most important thing - identify the bodies (and) hand them over to relatives", Ukrainian Security Service head Valentyn Nalyvaychenko said in televised remarks.