No wreckage from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has been found after a search of a possible debris site.
Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation, said: "There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing."
Vietnamese officials previously said the area had already been "searched thoroughly".
The release of the images briefly raised hopes of an end to the mystery surrounding the fate of flight MH370, which left Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing six days ago with 239 people on board.
The pictures, taken on Sunday and released by a Chinese government agency, appeared to show three floating objects of varying sizes in the sea.
According to the Chinese news agency, Xinhua, the largest of the suspected pieces of debris was about 79ft (24 metres) by 72ft (22 metres).
The objects identified by a Chinese satellite were spread across an area with a radius of 12 miles.
The release of the images followed on from the disclosure of the last words from the cockpit of the Boeing 777.
The pilot replied "Okay, received, goodnight" when Malaysian air traffic controllers signed off and told the plane it was entering Vietnam's airspace. Vietnamese controllers say they never heard from the aircraft.
US officials said on Wednesday none of the country's satellites detected a mid-air explosion when the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers.
The search has now been widened to cover 27,000 square nautical miles.
India has been asked to scour the Andaman Sea off Malaysia's west coast, and the search is also covering the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca.
Malaysia's air force chief confirmed military radar detected what could have been the airliner in an area in the north of the Strait of Malacca at around 2.15am local time on Saturday - 45 minutes after the plane vanished from air traffic control screens.
Rodzali Daud said the radar tracking point was 200 miles northwest of Penang Island on Malaysia's west coast, but that the detection had not been corroborated.
A senior Malaysia Airlines executive said on Wednesday there was "no reason to believe" the crew had caused the disappearance of the plane.
Footage has emerged of relatives furious at the lack of progress in the hunt for the flight.
The video is thought to have been recorded two days ago, and shows family members shouting and throwing an object at officials.
The majority of the passengers on board were Chinese, and impatience is growing there.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: "There's too much information and confusion right now. It is very hard for us to decide whether a given piece of information is accurate.
"We will not give it up as long as there's still a shred of hope."
Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said authorities there "have nothing to hide".
"There is only confusion if you want to see confusion," he said.
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