Australia risks a debt crisis similar to Europe unless efforts are made to bring the budget deficit under control, the head of the first national audit of government spending in 18 years said Thursday.

Tony Shepherd, chair of the National Commission of Audit, recommended gradual cuts worth up to Aus$60-70 billion (U.S.$55.8-65.1 billion) per year within the decade to improve efficiency and productivity across all areas of spending.

U.S. President Barack Obama will host Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott for meetings in June aimed at deepening their nations' close alliance, the White House announced on Tuesday.

Abbott, who will be making his first trip to the United States since becoming Australian leader last year, will visit Washington on June 12, the White House said in a statement.

Australia's prime minister Monday announced an expanded search across a huge swathe of seabed where Flight MH370 might have crashed seven weeks ago, admitting it is now "highly unlikely" any surface wreckage will be found.

A massive hunt for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 in the southern Indian Ocean has so far yielded nothing either on the surface or below, baffling authorities who are struggling to explain the loss of the aircraft.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Wednesday the purchase of 58 more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters costing Aus$12.4 billion ($11.6 billion) in a major defense upgrade to maintain Australia's regional edge.

The new aircraft will bring Australia's total JSF force to 72, with the first due to arrive in 2018 and enter service in 2020.

Australia said Wednesday cost was not a concern in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, after the mini-sub plumbing the depths of the Indian Ocean for wreckage ended its ninth mission empty-handed.

Australia is leading the multinational search for the Boeing 777 which vanished on March 8 carrying 239 people, and is bearing many of the costs of the mission expected to be the most expensive in aviation history.

Malaysia and Australia will sign a deal specifying who handles any wreckage from missing flight MH370 that may be recovered, including the crucial "black box" flight data recorders, local media reported Friday.

Malaysia is drafting the agreement "to safeguard both nations from any legal pitfalls that may surface during that (recovery) phase," the New Straits Times reported.

The mini-sub searching for missing flight MH370 dived on its fifth seabed mission Friday, officials said, testing the vehicle's recommended depth limits after failing to find any wreckage.

With no results to show since the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared on March 8, Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has set a one-week deadline to locate the plane which is believed to have crashed in a remote area of the Indian Ocean west of Perth.

An Australian naval captain has been relieved of his command after his vessel was involved in an incursion into Indonesian waters while on border protection duty, the defense ministry said Thursday.

Six incursions took place during Australia's military-led Operation Sovereign Borders to deter asylum-seeker boats in December and January, leading Canberra to apologize to Jakarta and set up an inquiry.

Malaysia warned Thursday that the search for flight MH370's wreckage in the vast depths of the Indian Ocean will be "huge", the latest sobering assessment by authorities involved in the challenging effort.

"When we look at salvaging (wreckage) at a depth of 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles), no military out there has the capacity to do it," Transport and Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

A New Zealander with terrorism links was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen last year, Prime Minister John Key said Wednesday, with Canberra confirming that an Australian was also killed in the attack.

The man who called himself "Muslim bin John" was born in New Zealand and had been attending "some sort of terrorist training camp" in Yemen, Key said.