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orest fires continued to rage across the country, blanketing neighbor Malaysia in haze on Wednesday, which caused temporary closure of Dumai's Pinang Kampar airport in Riau as visibility dropped to below 50 meters.

The WWF Indonesia has detected 1,608 fire hot spots across the country on Wednesday, the highest number in the last five days with a total of 5,349.

The hot spots are spread mostly in Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra and West Kalimantan provinces.

Fires blazing in Indonesia sent a blanket of haze over neighboring Malaysia's largest city, obscuring the sun and leaving an acrid smell in the air, the Associated Press reported from Kuala Lumpur.

It said the pollution caused air quality to drop to unhealthy levels in Kuala Lumpur and Sarawak state in eastern Malaysia.

Malaysia's Department of Environment readings showed air quality was "unhealthy" in six areas around Kuala Lumpur and Sarawak.

Only three of 50 monitoring stations across Malaysia recorded "good" air quality, while elsewhere it was "moderate."

Visibility in one town in Sarawak was down to less than 800 meters, according to the Meteorological Department. Generally visibility throughout Malaysia was at least 4 kilometers. Visibility on a clear day exceeds 10 kilometer.

Indonesian State Minister for Environment Rachmat Witoelar and his Malaysian counterpart Douglas Unggah Embas are scheduled to meet in Riau province to discuss the forest fire problems Saturday.

Official from Indonesia said the haze blanketing Malaysia was not from Indonesia since forest fires also happened in Malaysia.

"It is too early to complain that such haze comes from Indonesia," Illyas Asaad, deputy environment minister for law enforcement told The Jakarta Post.

He said the government had yet to take urgent plans to tackle the forest fires in Indonesia.

Indonesian Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban said Tuesday that the government would only take firm action to control fires if haze disturbed flights and sparked protests in Malaysia and Singapore.

Head of the Riau environment agency, Fadrizal Labay, denied the haze from forest fires in Riau had reached Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia and Singapore have complained since 1997 about haze drifting from Indonesia. The last time a severe haze affected those countries was in 2006.

Official at the control tower of Dumai's Pinang Kampai airport in Riau, Van Switen Sitanggang said the airport was closed again Wednesday morning as the haze in the area worsens. The closure has affected at least two flights, a Pelita Air flight from Jakarta and a Riau Airlines flight from Pekanbaru.