LONDON, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - The discovery of items possibly belonging to Steve Fossett will help bring closure to his family and friends after his mysterious disappearance last year, close friend Richard Branson said Thursday.

Branson added that he was confident that documents apparently belonging to Fossett, with whom the Virgin boss shared a string of adventures, were genuine.

Earlier, a California police chief said items including an identity card bearing the adventurer's name had been handed to authorities after being discovered on Tuesday in a remote area of the western American state.

'The positive thing is that today, a couple of stories that have appeared in the press, they?ll be put to rest once and for all, and everybody who was close to Steve will have the chance now to pay the right a tribute to what was a truly great and extraordinary person,' Branson told Sky News television.

The items found included a Federal Aviation Administration identity card, a pilot's licence, a separate identity card and 1,005 dollars in cash.

'They?re definitely authentic belongings, it was his pilot licence, his drivers licence, it was also a membership card to the national aeronautic association which gave Stephen an award a couple of years ago,' Branson said.

'He also often carried 100-dollar bills with him so we are certain that these are genuine findings.'

The mountainous terrain where the items were found is well within the range of the private airfield south of Reno, Nevada, where Fossett took off from on September 3, 2007.

Fossett's disappearance baffled rescuers who found no trace of the 63-year-old adventurer despite a massive search that involved dozens of aircraft taking to the skies to scour the region.

A multi-millionaire who made his fortune dealing stocks in Chicago, Fossett set dozens of world records in sailboats, gliders and hot-air balloons.

He famously made the first solo nonstop, non-refueled circumnavigation of the world in 67 hours in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. In 2002, he was the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.