Malaysia has been hit by haze caused by forest fires in Indonesia, leading to a sharp drop in visibility in a number of states including the resort of Penang, a senior official said today.

Mohamad Helmi Abdullah of the Meteorogical Services Department's central forecast office said he feared that the haze, the first seen this year, could sweep over the Malaysian peninsula as it did in 2005.

"The haze is due to forest fires in Sumatra island. It is a transboundary haze. In view of the current dry spell, we anticipate the haze to sweep across the whole peninsula. That is our concern," he told AFP .

The majority of Malaysia's 26 million population live on the peninsula, especially on the western side facing Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Department of Environment officials declined to reveal if the level of air pollution posed a threat to health, saying they would issue a statement later Tuesday.

Mohamad Helmi said authorities have detected 29 "hotspots" or fire zones in Sumatra and 134 on Indonesia's side of Borneo island, adding that the dry spell could last for another three months.

He said the haze was brought to Malaysia across the Malacca Strait by the southwesterly winds.

"It is a seasonal phenomena due to the dry southwest monsoon season and smoke from Sumatra will be transported to our country," he said.

Visibility down

Visibility today was reduced to two kilometers (1.24 miles) in Butterworth in Penang and Alor Star in Kedah, and to three kilometers in Sitiawan in Perak which borders Thailand, he added.

Southern Thailand has also been affected by haze from the forest fires, which 1,500 Indonesian firefighters are battling on Sumatra and Borneo islands.

Burning in Indonesia and some parts of Malaysia to clear land for crops causes an annual haze that afflicts countries in the region, including Singapore and Thailand.

Last August a state of emergency was declared in two towns on Malaysia's west coast when they bore the brunt of haze that sent pollution levels soaring to extremely hazardous levels.

The Food and Agriculture Organization in 2005 called on Asian nations to enforce bans on open burning to prevent the annual haze crisis.