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By Lincoln Feast and Swati Pandey SYDNEY/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Sunday searchers were "hopeful but by no means certain" that a pulse signal reportedly detected by a Chinese ship in the Indian Ocean was related to a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for four weeks. Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that a patrol vessel hunting for Flight MH370 had picked up a "ping" on Saturday, raising hopes that it could be from the underwater beacon of the plane's "black box" voice and data recorders. Australian search authorities said such a signal would be consistent with a black box, but both they and Xinhua stressed there was no conclusive evidence linking it to the Boeing 777 that went missing on March 8 with 239 people aboard shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. "We need to be very careful about coming to hard and fast conclusions too soon." Up to a dozen planes and 13 ships will be scouring three separate areas about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) northwest of Perth, Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center said on Sunday.More...