Jakarta - Bush fires spread in Indonesia yesterday as a deadline passed for plantation and forestry companies to prove they had not contributed to the choking smog that has turned much of south-east Asia into an environmental catastrophe.
A forestry expert said "quite a lot of fires" were now burning in eastern Java, the country's most populous island, which had escaped most of the smog. Mr Dennis Dykstra, deputy director-general of the Centre for International Forestry Research, said he had seen flames roaring through a pine plantation owned by the Forestry Ministry near Malang town. The Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, announced that Canberra would donate one million Australian dollars (£500,000) to pay for water-bombing of the Indonesian fires in addition to A$1 million in aid, announced on Tuesday, to help meet the health crisis created by the smog.
Malaysian firemen fighting their own forest fires in Pahang state had trouble finding and reaching the hot spots, in part because the smog blanketing the region made it difficult to see the smoke from the local fires.