Search teams hunting for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane are scrambling to relocate the "pings" that could be from the aircraft's black boxes.
With time running out to find the devices before the batteries die, the head of the search operation Angus Houston said no further signals had been picked up by the Australian navy ship Ocean Shield, since the last contact.
He said the vessel may spend several more days using sophisticated listening equipment to try and find the sounds again.
Only then would an unmanned submarine be sent down to try and chart any debris on the sea floor.
Mr Houston said: "There have been no further contacts with any transmission and we need to continue that for several days right up to the point at which there's absolutely no doubt that the batteries will have expired.
"If we don't get any further transmissions, we have a reasonably large search area of the bottom of the ocean to prosecute and that will take a long, long time. It's very slow, painstaking work."
He said narrowing the search area first was critical.
Mr Houston said: "It is a large area for a small submersible that has a very narrow field of search, and of course, it is literally crawling along the bottom of the ocean.
"That's why its so important to get another transmission and we need to continue until there's absolutely no chance the device is still transmitting."
His comments contradicted an earlier statement by Australia's acting prime minister, Warren Truss, who said search crews would be start using the Bluefin 21 unmanned submarine on Tuesday.
The pinger locator towed by Ocean Shield detected over the weekend two distinct, long-lasting sounds underwater, consistent with signals from an aircraft's flight data recorders.
Mr Huston said at the time it represented the best lead in the search yet.
But he warned it could take days to decide whether the sounds were linked to Flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board.
It is thought to have crashed in the Indian Ocean after flying thousands of miles off course.
The authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as a cause of the plane's disappearance but say evidence, including the loss of communications, suggests it was deliberately diverted.
Up to 14 planes and 14 ships will take part in the search on Tuesday.
Defence Minister David Johnston said: "We are throwing everything at this difficult and complex task."
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