ASEAN ministers dicuss environmental cooperation

Environment ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations ,ASEAN,are meeting in Singapore to discuss how to prevent a recurrence of the haze which covered large parts of the region this year.

The haze, which lasted from August until November, affected public health and tourism and was partly blamed for a plane crash in Sumatra.

Experts said forest fires in Indonesia were the main cause of the smog.

ASEAN leaders agreed to step up regional cooperation on the environment at their recent summit in Kuala Lumpur.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service