Prime Minister Tony Abbott insists he will directly confront Russian president Vladimir Putin “one way or another” over the Malaysia Airlines tragedy.

Mr Abbott made the comments on Thursday in joint talks with visiting Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.

Mr Abbott has previously promised to “shirt front” Mr Putin over the MH17 tragedy, which killed 38 Australian citizens and residents.

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Russia has still not agreed to a formal bilateral meeting, but Mr Abbott was confident he would be able to speak with Mr Putin.

“I’ll be in Beijing with him at the APEC conference, then of course we’re expecting him at the G20 conference in Brisbane,” Mr Abbott said.

“So one way or another, an opportunity will come up for me to speak personally with President Putin.”

Mr Abbott was one of the first world leaders to publicly point the finger at Russian-backed separatists for shooting down the plane over eastern Ukraine.

He said that was based on “very strong” security advice in the days after the tragedy, and “there’s been nothing since then to question that original security advice”.

Mr Abbott is hosting a meeting with Mr Rutte, who is in Australia for a two-day visit to discuss the MH17 disaster.

Mr Rutte said authorities had been able to recover more human remains from the debris, although the investigation was still a long way from being finalised.

“Last week and this week, luckily, conditions allowed a small team to visit the crash site,” he told reporters.

“And that will mean that we can again transfer to the Netherlands the found remains of victims, following the usual ceremonial protocol that will take place on Saturday.”

Almost 200 Dutch nationals were on board the Malaysia Airlines flight.

Mr Rutte visited Malaysia on his way to Australia.

He and Mr Abbott also spoke about the security situation in the Middle East, and the need to combat the “foreign fighter phenomenon”.

“We have to deal with the fact that people might want to come back to The Netherlands or Australia, having gained a lot of new insights and knowledge, which could be a threat to our societies,” Mr Rutte said.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Rutte visited Government House in Canberra for a meeting with Governor-General Peter Cosgrove.

-ABC