THE HAGUE: Dutch air crash investigators said yesterday an initial report into the cause of the MH17 tragedy in Ukraine will be released "this week or the next".

Of the 298 passengers killed when the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 exploded over strife-torn eastern Ukraine on July 17, 193 were Dutch citizens.

The Dutch government has been placed in charge of victim identification and probing the cause of the disaster.

"We do not know exactly when the interim report will be released but it will be this week or the next," said Sara Vernooij, spokesman for the Dutch Safety Board (OVV).

Vernooij stressed the findings will be a "first report, an interim report".

"The final report will be published later, hopefully by next year," she said.

The West has blamed Russian-backed separatists for shooting down MH17, while Moscow blames Kiev.

The aircraft's black boxes have been shipped to Farnborough in Britain to be examined by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.

Air crash investigators returned to The Hague from Ukraine early last month without being able to visit the crash site, due to the deteriorating security situation in the country's volatile east.

However, Ukranian air crash experts, who now form part of the OVV team, did visit the scene shortly after the crash.

The search for body parts has been suspended since early August due to heavy fighting in the area. – AFP