KIEV (AFP) - Ukraine rebels have guaranteed investigators "safe access" to the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in territory they hold, negotiators said after talks with the insurgents.

The separatists committed to providing "safe access and security guarantees to the national investigation commission, including international investigators, in the area under their control," the trilateral Contact Group on the Ukraine Crisis said in a statement, adding rebels would also close off the site and allow local authorities to recover the bodies of the victims.