We are confident that it is not beyond the capacity of the Indonesian authorities to exercise greater vigilance and impose strict punishment on the culprits

New Straits Times

Singapore Environment Minister Lee Yock Suan has written his Indonesian counterpart to "convey our concern over the smoke haze situation", the statement said.

Attending the meeting in Jakarta next Thursday will be environment officials from Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.

Singapore optimistic

"Our sense is that there is a commitment on their [Indonesia's] part to actually deal with the fires," said Loh Ah Tuan, a director at Singapore's Ministry of the Environment.

Singapore's pollution level remained relatively low until Thursday, thanks to favourable winds that took the smoke from the Sumatra blazes elsewhere.

Areas of Malaysia are shrouded in smoke

It has not been as hard hit as parts of Thailand and Malaysia this week.

A Singapore meteorological official, Wong Teo Suan, told Reuters: "The situation will not change very much in what we're experiencing in Singapore - a slight to moderate haze - and I don't think it will deteriorate."

Malaysia hard hit

Central Kuala Lumpur in neighbouring Malaysia, however, is shrouded in smoke, obscuring the hills that ring the capital.

Malaysia's New Straits Times newspaper urged Indonesia to confront the issue of farmers starting fires deliberately to clear land for cultivation.

"We are confident that it is not beyond the capacity of the Indonesian authorities to exercise greater vigilance and impose strict punishment on the culprits," the newspaper said in an editorial on Friday.

In 1997, the region suffered a suffocating haze caused by Indonesia fires.

Indonesia has asked Australian fire-fighters to help put out the fires in Sumatra and Borneo.