The Indonesian government has estimated it needs about US$60 million (RM228 million) to fight the haze originating from its districts, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Azmi Khalid said today.

"Indonesia is asking Asean and non-Asean countries to contribute US$30 million (RM114 million) out of the total amount," he disclosed.

He was speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby after his ministerial winding-up speech on the Budget 2007 at the Dewan Rakyat this afternoon.

The estimated figure was needed to help Indonesia improve its fire-fighting infrastructure and purchase the necessary equipment such as water bombers to fight the yearly recurring haze .

However, Azmi added that the figure was not finalised yet.

On the same note, the minister said Malaysia was receptive to a Indonesia' proposal that its regions where open burning was rampant be 'adopted' by neighbouring countries in a bid to help fight the haze.

"Malaysia and Singapore have been asked to help maintain some of the regions. We will identify the regions that have a direct impact on us," Azmi said.

Early warning

He said Malaysia's willingness offer help to Indonesia was due to the fact that the haze scourge had a great financial impact on Malaysia.

"The haze has impacted on the tourism industry as tourists don't turn up [...] agriculture is affected, because plants need sunlight too," he said.

Azmi also revealed the Asean countries have agreed to set up an early warning system for the haze as satellite images used at present did not always show an accurate picture.

"For instance, from the satellite we see over 3,000 hot spots but in actual fact, there are just 600 real fires," he said.

He said all suggestions to fight the haze will be dealt with by an Asean technical committee comprising representatives from Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia.

The committee will meet every three months with the last meeting held in the Philippines last week. The next meeting has been fixed for next February in Brunei.

Health problems

Asean in 2002 agreed to join forces to fight forest and peat soil fires in member states but Indonesia has yet to ratify the agreement much to its neighbours' irritation.

Indonesian farmers burn forests annually to clear land for agriculture, causing a haze that spreads across the region during the dry season, affecting tourism and increasing health problems.