World Bulletin/News Desk

Russia asked Kiev on Thursday for permission to help with rescue work in eastern Ukraine after a Malaysian passenger airliner was brought down there, the Emergencies Ministry said.

"The Russian emergency services sent an official request to our Ukrainian colleagues to carry out joint work at the crash site of a Boeing (plane) on Ukrainian territory," Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov told Russia's RIA news agency.

Russia's Health Ministry also offered its expertise in helping to identify the bodies of the 295 people killed, ministry spokesman Oleg Salagan told RIA.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden also spoke to Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday and offered U.S. assistance to help determine what happened to a crashed Malaysian plane on the Ukraine border, the White House said.

It was not clear whether Kiev had responded.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine are badly strained following the overthrow of a Ukrainian president who was sympathetic to Moscow and Russia's subsequent annexation of the Crimea region from Ukraine.

Kiev accuses Moscow of backing pro-Russian separatists who have risen up in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies the accusations.