PARIS (AFP) - A piece of aeroplane wreckage that washed up on an Indian Ocean island arrived for analysis at a French laboratory on Saturday, an AFP journalist saw, after Malaysian authorities said the part almost certainly came from missing flight MH370.

Transported in a convoy of vehicles under police escort, the wing part from a Boeing 777 arrived at about 5.30pm (11.30pm Singapore time) at the defence ministry laboratory specialising in plane crash investigations near Toulouse in southwestern France.

A flight carrying the debris from La Reunion island, where it was found earlier this week, arrived in Paris earlier on Saturday.

Experts will begin their analysis on Wednesday, along with an examination of parts of a suitcase discovered nearby.

If confirmed, the discovery would mark the first breakthrough in a case that has baffled aviation experts for 16 months.

"I believe that we are moving closer to solving the mystery of MH370. This could be the convincing evidence that MH370 went down in the Indian Ocean," Malaysia's deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi told AFP.