Malaysia said on Tuesday the choking haze gripping the region would be a 'major agenda' item when ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet next month.
The ministers will decide what recommendations on how to tackle the annual haze problem will be taken to the ASEAN summit in December, Malaysia's Natural Resources and Environment Minister Azmi Khalid told reporters.
"I don't see that we can see results immediately," Azmi said. "I am as frustrated as every citizen of Malaysia because we are helpless at the present moment."
Indonesian farmers burn forests annually to clear land for agriculture, causing a haze that spreads across the region during the dry season, affecting tourism and increasing health problems.
Azmi acknowledged there was "not much on the ground" in terms of action to tackle the problem and that the profusion of meetings were achieving little.
"Personally I'm not very happy just for meetings. When the people are facing problems, we are still having meetings. But it's better to have something than nothing," he said.
The meeting follows a gathering of ASEAN environment ministers earlier this month after smoke mostly from Indonesian fires sent air pollution soaring to unhealthy levels in neighbours Malaysia and Singapore. "Whatever has been done so far definitely is not satisfactory (but) at the same time, you cannot blame Indonesia, you cannot expect one meeting like that to solve all the problems," Azmi said.
"At the very top level they sound serious but I'm wondering whether they can do anything much on the ground," he added.
The ministers at the meeting urged Jakarta to promptly ratify a regional treaty on preventing the choking haze the blazes cause, but Azmi said there had been no indication yet from Indonesia on the call.
"We've not heard from Indonesia whether their parliament has already ratified the ASEAN agreement on trans-border haze. We're really hoping that they would do," he said.