Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the measure is aimed at tackling the haze which engulfs the region when fires rage in Indonesia.

"Malaysia has been asked to adopt and manage certain areas which my ministry has agreed to in principle. I still need to bring this up to the Cabinet," he said at the Parliament lobby.

He was elaborating on his winding up speech of the ministry's Supplementary Supply Bill 2007, where he touched on measures being taken to overcome the haze.

His ministry was currently identifying the areas to adopt, with emphasis on regions that directly affect Malaysia.

Azmi also said there is a need to set up an early warning system as current satellite pictures of detecting hotspots were inaccurate.

"The satellites only detect temperature and this does not necessarily mean that an area is on fire. We need to come up with a system that allows us to spot the fire before raising the alarm," he said.

During the winding up, he said these were the proposals discussed at a meeting with five Asian Environment ministers in Cebu, Philippines on Nov 7 and 8.

"The ministers will meet every three months to monitor the progress. The next meeting is scheduled to be held in Brunei in February."

He also said the countries, with the exception of Thailand, had agreed in principle to contribute US$50,000 (RM190,000) to the Asian Haze Fund.

"The amount is not enough to tackle the haze and we are actually looking to get financial help from international organisations as well," he said.

He said the Indonesian government estimated that US$60 million is needed to tackle the problem, and is looking for other countries to help raise half the amount.

He added that the haze, which had shrouded the region last month, was due to continuous burning of peat soil, and was further compounded by forest fires and indiscriminate clearing of land for agricultural purposes by the slash-and- burn method.