JAKARTA: Indonesia has accepted Malaysia's offer to help tackle forest fires in the republic that have led to weeks of haze.

Deputy Prme Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto had given the green light to Malaysia's offer to help put out forest fires in Kalimantan, where more than 1,400 hotspots have been detected."We've also agreed to longer-term planning to prevent a recurrence of the haze from forest fires, which are also happening in Sumatera and other regions in Indonesia," Zahid told a press conference here.

Zahid said Prabowo informed him that action had been taken against 95 companies involved in open burning in Kalimantan.

"Malaysia welcomes the measures taken to extinguish the fires and we too will help them because it affects Sarawak.

"I have told Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan to coordinate Malaysia's assistance in firefighting efforts.’

“He said the Malaysian authorities involved include the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), the Fire and Rescue Department, the Malaysian Army, the Malaysia Civil Defence Force and the Malaysian Meteorological Department, which typically handles cloud seeding.

Separately, Zahid said Indonesia was looking into the possible involvement of Malaysian companies in the fires, although he had so far not received any information."Perhaps in terms of shareholding, there may be a small number of companies owned by Malaysian shareholders."Last week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he discussed the haze issue with Prabowo on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit in New Delhi, India.