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