(AFP) Malaysia is suffering its worst dry season in years, with thousands of hectares of forest destroyed by fires and water rationing looming in some areas, officials said today.

The government has announced an immediate ban on all forms of open burning except for cremation and religious rites, threatening offenders with a fine of RM500,000 and five years in jail.

Department of Environment director Rosnani Ibrahim said some 14,800 hectares of forest had been destroyed around the country in the past month, the New Straits Times reported.

Haze from forest and peat fires has covered much of the area surrounding Kuala Lumpur, and air pollution levels last week were unhealthy, a spokeswoman for the department told AFP .

She warned that the dry spell, the worst in years, was expected to last until the end of next month.

Air pollution had "improved from the past few days, but we don't know if it will continue improving if the weather remains dry," she said.

The environment department's enforcement director, Lee Heng Keng, told AFP that there was an increase in the number of fires over last year and this had caused the decline in air quality over the past week.

"There are definitely more burnings this year," he said, adding that the fires were mostly deliberate.

El Nino phenomenon

The New Straits Times reported that water levels at major dams in the country were also affected by the dry spell, with Malacca expected to implement water rationing from the first week of March.

"It's generally like that at this time of year but last year we didn't have such a prolonged dry spell," a spokesman with the weather department told AFP .

He said that the environmental department had not drawn any conclusion yet on whether or not the El Nino phenomenon, which contributed to a choking haze in the region in 1997, would occur this year.

El Nino, a massive displacement of water in the Pacific Ocean, brings higher surface temperatures off the coast of South America and cooler waters around Australia and New Zealand.

The phenomenon is believed to cause droughts, floods, frosts and forest fires around the world in regions as far apart as south Asia and the Horn of Africa.

The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said earlier this month scientists were observing "a steady evolution toward El Nino conditions".