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US President Joe Biden says he expects to speak with China's President Xi Jinping about a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down early this month.

"We are not looking for a new cold war," Biden said.

Biden, in his most extensive remarks about the Chinese balloon and three unidentified objects downed by US fighters, did not say when he would speak with Xi, but said the United States was continuing to engage diplomatically with China on the issue.

"I expect to be speaking with President Xi, I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this, but I make no apologies for taking down that balloon," Biden said in response to complaints from Beijing.

After the speech, he told NBC News: "I think the last thing that Xi wants is to fundamentally rip the relationship with the United States and with me."

China says the 60 metre balloon was for monitoring weather conditions, but Washington says it clearly was a surveillance balloon with a massive undercarriage containing electronics.

Biden, who had made few public comments about the spate of aerial objects that began with the spotting of the Chinese balloon, broke his silence on Thursday after lawmakers demanded more information on the incidents, which have baffled many Americans.

He said the US intelligence community was still trying to learn more about the three unidentified objects: one that was shot down over Alaska, one over Canada and a third that plunged into Lake Huron. The administration has said they were downed because they posed a threat to civil aviation.

"We don't yet know exactly what these three objects were, but nothing right now suggests they were related to the Chinese spy balloon program or they were surveillance vehicles from any other country," Biden said.

The intelligence community believes the objects were "most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions", Biden said.

Biden said they might have been spotted due to radar that was enhanced in response to the Chinese balloon.

"That's why I've directed my team to come back to me with sharper rules for how we will deal with these unidentified objects moving forward, distinguishing between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not," he said.

Biden's remarks followed reports the Chinese balloon, downed on February 4 after crossing the continental United States, originally had a trajectory that would have taken it over Guam and Hawaii but was blown off course by prevailing winds.

Asked in advance about Biden's remarks, a China's foreign ministry spokesman on Thursday once again referred to the downed balloon as an "unmanned civilian airship", and said its flight into US airspace was an "isolated" incident.

The US "should be willing to meet China in the middle, manage differences and appropriately handle isolated, unexpected incidents to avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments; and promote the return of US-China relations to a healthy and stable development track," spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters at a regular briefing.

Beijing had criticised Washington for overreacting by shooting down the balloon, and warned of "countermeasures against relevant US entities that undermine China's sovereignty and security".

On Thursday, China put Lockheed Martin and a unit of Raytheon Technologies on an "unreliable entities list" over arms sales to Taiwan, banning them from imports and exports related to China in its latest sanctions against the US companies.

Lockheed makes the F-22 Raptor fighter jet that flew the mission to shoot down the Chinese balloon and Raytheon makes the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile that blew it out of the sky.

© AP 2023

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has warned New Zealand to expect death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle beyond six as rescue and recovery efforts from the massive storm continue.

Two men added to the death toll on Thursday.

A man in his 60s was killed in floodwaters in the Gisborne region overnight, becoming the fifth victim of the storm.

Late on Thursday, Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) confirmed the death of a volunteer firefighter who was critically injured when a house collapsed earlier in the week.

The incident, in Muriwai on Auckland's west coast, also claimed the life of a second firefighter.

"All of Fire and Emergency will feel his loss, and my heart goes out to his family," FENZ chief executive Kerry Gregory told the NZ Herald.

Mr Hipkins said police still had "grave concerns" for others, with the number of reports made for uncontactable people more than doubling on Thursday.

"We do need to be prepared for the likelihood that there will be more fatalities," he said from Wellington.

The prime minister undertook a tour of Gisborne earlier on Thursday, describing damage as "traumatic".

More than 10,000 people have been dislocated by the cyclone, with thousands spending the night at civil defence centres in hard-hit regions such as Hawke's Bay.

Maik Beekmans, a resident of the Hawke's Bay town of Eskdale, told Radio NZ a woman was missing after failing to escape rising waters at his property on Tuesday.

Already, one fatality has been confirmed in Eskdale - a child who died in floodwaters.

Mr Beekmans' best friend Gareth and his girlfriend spent three weeks house-sitting the Eskdale property while he was on holiday, finding themselves in the path of the storm.

"They sought refuge on our bench-top in the kitchen and the water kept rising. He smashed his way through the ceiling," Mr Beekmans said.

"The water kept rising into the ceiling space they had to clamour onto the roof ... only Gareth made it.

"We think he lost his girlfriend that night ... she disappeared under the house and she's been missing and things aren't looking great."

Local media have detailed eyewitness reports of bodies in the region, which police are yet to confirm.

As Thursday afternoon, 3544 reports of uncontactable people have been made with police.

Police believe that number includes many double-ups and is largely due to telecommunications and power outages.

Mr Hipkins said all 450 rescue requests that had been logged with Fire and Emergency NZ had been completed.

"That's great news, and I'm sure it'll be a big relief to everyone across the country," he said.

Gabrielle formed in the Coral Sea last week, carrying category-two intensity out of the tropics to New Zealand, battering various North Island communities from Sunday to Wednesday.

There is major damage to infrastructure, including roads, rail and power lines in several regions.

Mr Hipkins said there were still more than 100,000 houses without power, including much of the key regional centre of Napier.

Transport Minister Michael Wood said there was an "immediate focus on those necessities of life where people need them".

More than 700 defence force personnel have joined the effort, with 70 police also re-stationing to the eastern regions where concerns are highest.

Food and water drops have taken place in towns that have lost road access, with the navy sending supplies from Auckland by sea.

Two dozen Australian rescue workers will join the effort later this week after responding to a request from Kiwi authorities.

In Gisborne, Mr Hipkins said he'd also seen "the very best of New Zealand as well".

"We've seen communities coming together, wrapping support around each other, looking after each other."

© AAP 2023

The shooting deaths of six people including two Queensland police at a rural property two months ago was the nation's first domestic terror attack inspired by "Christian extremist ideology", with a US man a person of interest in the case.

Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow were shot dead by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train after the officers arrived at their Wieambilla property, more than 300km west of Brisbane, on December 12.

Alan Dare was also gunned down after going to check on the commotion, with the Trains killed in a gunfight with specialist police later that night.

Deputy Police Commissioner Tracy Linford said police don't believe the shootings were random or spontaneous but rather a deliberate and premeditated act of terror inspired by extremist Christian beliefs.

"Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train acted as an autonomous cell and executed a religiously motivated terrorist attack," she told reporters on Thursday.

"What we've been able to glean from that information is that the Train family members subscribe to what we'll call a broad Christian fundamentalist belief system known as premillennialism."

Premillennialists hold an apocalyptic belief that the world will go through a period of calamities before the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Investigators found six guns, three compound bows with arrows and a number of knives at the Train property.

Investigators believe no other people in Australia were involved in planning or carrying out the attack, Ms Linford said.

However, a man with an American accent who called himself Don and posted videos online referring to the Trains before and after the shootings is a person of interest.

The FBI has been provided with information about certain people in the US who interacted with the trio on social media.

The unprecedented attack came six months after ASIO director-general Mike Burgess warned right-wing extremism was taking up almost half of his agency's counter-terrorism workload.

"Christian extremist ideology has been linked to other attacks around the world but this is the first time we've seen it appear in Australia," Ms Linford said.

The deputy commissioner said a number of events had pushed the trio towards extreme religious beliefs including Nathaniel Train's heart attack, which was "a profound moment for him and his belief in God".

He and Stacey Train losing their school jobs after refusing to comply with COVID-19 vaccine mandates had also hardened their anti-government views.

Ms Linford said it was possible the trio were hoping to inspire copycats with social media posts and believed they were preparing for the "end of days".

The trio set up a camouflaged hide-out at the property, where one of them would periodically "lie in wait", along with multiple barricades including dirt mounds, logs and steel fences.

There was also dated CCTV footage, radios and mirrors on trees, which police believe the trio used to spot passing cars, and a trapdoor under the house possibly installed for an easy escape.

Investigators are still looking into whether mental health played any part in the attack, as is often the case in lone-wolf terrorist attacks, although this would be unusual if it was a factor for three different people.

"When you've got three acting together, it's challenging to say that it was a mental health issue in this instance, particularly when we look at all the material we've examined," Ms Linford said.

© AAP 2023