Indonesia Signs Regional Pact To Slow Fires, Smog - Reuters

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JAKARTA - Indonesia will ratify a Southeast Asian agreement that calls for regional cooperation to deal with forest fires blanketing the region with choking smog, a presidential spokesman said on Thursday.

The pledge came a day before environment ministers from five Southeast Asian nations are due to meet in Pekanbaru on Indonesia's Sumatra island to discuss ways to tackle the problem. Jakarta has been criticised by its neighbours for failing to tackle the annual dry season blazes, which in past weeks have caused serious air pollution across the region, particularly Malaysia and Singapore.

The Association of South East Asian Nations approved the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002, but Indonesia's parliament has yet to ratify it, angering countries affected by the smoke, known as haze in the region.

"Indonesia will ratify it and at the same time adopt a comprehensive solution to the haze problem," said Dino Patti Djalal, a spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Fires caused by farmers and big businesses such as plantations have been burning for weeks in parts of Indonesia, creating a choking haze that has made many people ill, shut some airports and threatened wildlife in protected forests.

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