KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 (Bernama) -- Asean environment ministers are looking forward to Indonesia depositing the instrument of ratification of the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, which came into force in 2003.

The ministers also congratulated Indonesia's commitment to fully ratify a regional haze agreement at the 15th Informal Asean Ministerial Meeting on the Environment, and 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

The two-day meeting which began on Oct 30, was held at Vientiane, Lao PDR, according to a news release from the Asean Secretariat Saturday.

Indonesia's Parliament voted on Sept 16 to ratify the regional agreement, 12 years after the government had signed it.

The agreement was drawn up after the worst haze on record occurred in 1997. The cause of the pollution was the slash-and-burn clearing of forests in Indonesia to prepare land for planting of crops, particularly oil palm.

The other nine Asean member countries had ratified the agreement as of June 2013. All the Asean countries signed the pact in June 2002 in Kuala Lumpur.

In the meeting, the ministers encouraged the Sub-regional Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution countries to share hotspot areas that cause transboundary haze on a government-to-government basis.

In the statement, the ministers agreed that Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) would continue to be vigilant and take additional preventive measures, and immediate fire suppression in the event of any occurrence of transboundary haze in the coming months.

The ministers also urged ASMC to operationalise the alert levels, trigger points, and actions on fire suppression to prevent recurrence of transboundary haze pollution.

They also welcomed and appreciated Thailand's initiative to develop the Air4Asean application on air quality information, including pollution indices in the Asean region for public for smart phones and tablets. The application would be launched this month.

The next meeting will be held in Vietnam next year.