JOHANNESBURG - Malaysia will send a technical team to neighbouring Indonesia to develop a framework to tackle forest fires that have blanketed parts of Southeast Asia with choking smog, a minister said here today.

Malaysian Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding told AFP he met his Indonesian counterpart Nabiel Makarim on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Earth Summit to voice concern over fresh fires in Indonesia's Borneo and Sumatra islands blamed on illegal loggers and farmers.

Law last month wrote a letter to Makarim to complain about the annual haze hazard, which has also hit Brunei, Singapore and Thailand.

"I repeated Malaysia's concerns but they have their own national problems. There is no workable mechanism in Indonesia to tackle the fires and they are short of resources and manpower," Law said.

"I briefly outlined Malaysia's experience and they suggested we form a technical committee to go to Indonesia, to go to the ground to find out how we can formulate the best framework for them and make it workable."

Plan of action

Law said Malaysia's experience in tackling serious haze pollution in 1997-98 largely due to the Indonesia fires showed that it "need not be very expensive" if a proper structure was put into place.

"Malaysia's plan of action is workable. We are not saying it's 100 percent effective but at least we know what's happening on the ground and we can control the problem," he said.

Makarim, who has defended Indonesia's handling of the problem, would visit Kuala Lumpur in two weeks' time to discuss further details, he said, adding that he had also informed Brunei and Singapore about the plan.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi met with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri during a round-table session at the summit Tuesday but there were no bilateral talks between the two leaders, officials said.

Smog peril

Indonesia has been silent on the smog peril at the summit but Abdullah took up the issue when he expressed Malaysia's concern about the regular occurrence of forest fires and transboundary haze, which he said caused "massive environmental and economic losses."

Abdullah, who will succeed Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad when he steps down in October next year, called on the international community "to assist by building capacity and transferring technology on fire prevention and control". AFP

Southeast Asia has been battling the smog problem annually since 1997 when parts of the region were blanketed for months, causing serious health problems and economic losses estimated at RM37 billion.

Although this year's haze is less serious than in 1997-98, Indonesia is still under pressure from its neighbours to act.

Hundreds of Indonesian schools have been closed, flights have been disrupted and many residents of Borneo and Sumatra islands have donned masks before venturing out, as pollution has hit dangerous levels in some provinces.