SE Asians demand real haze solution

SE Asians demand real haze solution

MALAYSIA: Southeast Asian environment ministers will try to find a long-term solution to the region's annual fire haze problem at a meeting in Manila next week, Malaysia and Singapore said on Tuesday.

Malaysia's Environment Minister Adenam Satem said the talks would tackle the transboundary air pollution problem and ways to prevent it, the Bernama news agency reported.

The choking haze -- blamed on forest and peat fires and open burning on plantations in Indonesia and parts of Malaysia -- again enveloped both countries and the south of Thailand this year.

Singapore's Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, in Malaysia for a bilateral meeting, said that in spite of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) haze agreement, there was a need for improved prevention.

He said discussions at the ministerial meeting might lead to haze making the agenda at an ASEAN summit in December, Bernama reported. -- AFP