KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia will send a delegation to Indonesia next month to help Jakarta try to beat the problem of forest fires which regularly choke neighbouring countries in an unhealthy haze, a senior official said today.

The delegation, led by Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding, will visit Pontianak in West Kalimantan province on Nov 4, Department of Environment director-general Rosnani Ibarahim told AFP .

His team of environmental officials and fire-fighting experts will study the causes of forest fires there and advise on an open-burning control system imposed in Malaysia 10 years ago, she said.

Many of Indonesia's fires are deliberately set by planters clearing land for cultivation, and Rosnani said Malaysia hoped Indonesia would implement a zero-burning policy soon.

A choking haze from Indonesian fires which enveloped the region in 1997 and to a lesser extent in 1998 caused an estimated RM35 billion in economic losses.

Pollution at highest level

Rosnani said the matter was raised at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur between Law and his Indonesian counterpart on Oct 7.

"We took them to visit an oil palm plantation near Kuala Lumpur to show how we replant oil palm trees without having to burn the old trees which have been felled."

On Tuesday, Singapore reported that the smoke haze from Indonesia had pushed the pollution index to its highest reading this year, the National Environment Agency said.

In Malaysia, a spokesman for the meterorological department said visibility in parts of the country dropped to between three and six kilometres today due to winds blowing smoke into Malaysia. Normal visibility is at least 10 kilometres.

He said satellite pictures had detected at least 20 "hotspots" marking major forest or peat fires in each of Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan provinces.