Malaysia Transportation Minister Hishammuddin bin Hussein has announced that 122 pieces of "potential objects" have been spotted by a French Airbus satellite in the search area for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

"We cannot tell whether the potential objects are from MH370," Hussein said. "This is another new lead that will help direct the search operation."

Here are some of the highlights from the press conference (video below):

— The French photos were taken on March 23 and show 122 items, ranging from 1 meter long to 23 meters (975 feet) long, within a 154-square-mile area of the ocean. "Some of the objects appeared to be bright, possibly indicating solid material."

— Satellite leads from Australia, China, and France show possible debris. "It is now imperative that we link the debris to MH370. This will allow us to further reduce the search area and locate more debris from the plane."

— Australia is leading the search out of Perth. "All countries involved are displaying unprecedented levels of cooperation."

— Hussein said that a working group involving an international technical team is working with the U.K. company Inmarsat, which provided crucial satellite data that indicated the plane flew along the northern and southern corridors. Inmarsat has also provided important further satellite data analysis.

Here is a picture of some of the objects (via Bevan Shields of The Sydney Morning Herald):

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that the search has been made more difficult because of extreme weather conditions.

"A considerable amount of debris has been sighted in the area where the flight was last recorded," Abbot said. "Bad weather and inaccessibility has so far prevented any of it from being recovered. But we are confident that it will be."

A dozen aircraft from Australia, the U.S., New Zealand, China, Japan, and South Korea are scouring the seas about 1,550 miles southwest of Perth — one of the Earth's most remote locations — to inspect debris and search for the plane's black box. Underwater volcanoes and huge waves are complicating the search.

"In general, this is the windiest and waviest part of the ocean," University of New South Wales oceanographer Erik van Sebille told Agence France-Presse. "In winter, if a storm passes by you can expect waves of 10 to 15 meters."

On the bright side, Van Sebille said that the remote location means that searchers will not deal with a bunch of garbage and random debris.

"This area of ocean is virtually pristine," he said, pointing out that ocean currents in the area naturally move flotsam north of the search area.