Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak secured the agreement in talks on Sunday with rebel leader Alexander Borodai, Malaysian officials said.

Mr Najib’s office said he has spoken with the foreign ministers of Australia and the Netherlands about working closely together to deploy police to the site near the Russian border in eastern Ukraine.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has offered 190 Australian Federal Police and an unknown number of Australian logistic-providing soldiers while Malaysia announced that 68 of its police will leave Kuala Lumpur for the crash site on Wednesday.

The Netherlands has offered 40 unarmed military police to go the site to help complete forensic work and gather evidence, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday.

The agreement with the rebels is another diplomatic coup for Mr Najib who had already negotiated the return of most of the victims’ bodies and the plane’s black box recording devices.

Mr Najib has refrained from directly blaming anyone for shooting down the plane while keep lines of communication open with the rebels.

But on Sunday he stepped up public pressure on Mr Borodai, saying he is “deeply concerned” that international investigators have been unable to deploy to the site because of the volatile security situation.

“It is imperative that we deploy a full team of investigators to ensure that all human remains are removed from the site, identified and repatriated,” Mr Najib said.

“I hope that this agreement with Mr Boradai will ensure security on the ground so that international investigators can conduct their work,” he said.

“Through our joint deployment of police personnel the Netherlands, Australia and Malaysia will work together to achieve justice for the victims.”

Earlier Malaysia said its investigators believe that at least 33 international investigators need to be deployed to the site where they believe human remains still have not been recovered.

“Everyone who was on board MH17 must be afforded proper dignity and respect,” Mr Najib said.

International political analysts have criticised Mr Abbott’s plan to send such a large group of Australians, saying it risked increasing tensions in the Ukrainian territory held by Russian-backed rebels.

An Australian Defence Force figure has also warned against any expectations that Australians could secure to the site where the Boeing 777 was shot down with 298 people on board.

But Mr Najib’s agreement will ease concerns about the safety of the Australian and other police who will be unarmed.

Mr Najib plans to travel to the Netherlands for further talks this week.

Angus Houston, Australia’s special envoy in Ukraine, said on Sunday that Australian’s contingent to the site would be a “non-aggressive, non-threatening force so that nobody will interfere with it.”

A small number of Australian troops would provide help provide logistics for the police who would lead the operation.

Mr Houston told the ABC’s Insiders program that Australians who had twice visited the site had not encountered any hostility from the rebels who control the area.

Meanwhile, Mr Najib has told his nation the remains of the 43 Malaysian victims of the crash will not be home for Monday’s celebrations marking the end of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month.

Earlier he had said his government would do all it could to have the bodies returned for the most significant time of the year for Muslims in the pre-dominantly Islamic nation.

“We cannot avoid a very painstaking process,” he said.

Malaysians have been shocked by the loss of two of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777s in less than five months.