Malaysia cancels haze emergency, but warns problems remain

Malaysia called off a haze emergency in Sarawak state on Borneo island on Monday but said very unhealthy levels of air pollution remain as a result of forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia.

Kuala Lumpur on Friday activated the emergency after obtaining royal consent when pollution levels reached critical levels in Serian, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of the Sarawak capital, Kuching.

King Sultan Ibrahim "today approved the termination of the declaration of emergency", the prime minister's office said Monday.

"The haze situation in Sarawak has not yet fully recovered, and the API (Air Pollution Index) reading in several areas... is still at very unhealthy levels," it said in a statement.

API figures in Serian passed the critical threshold of 500 on Friday, peaking at 519 with the town cloaked in a thick cloud of smoke.

Under Malaysian guidelines, API levels above 300 are classified as hazardous, while readings beyond 500 constitute the threshold for declaring a local emergency.

Rain in Serian on Friday night and Saturday morning -- believed to have been the result of cloud seeding -- brought some respite, with API levels dropping to the low 200s on Monday, according to Sarawak's Natural Resources and Environment Board.

Toxic haze has shrouded parts of Indonesia and Malaysia for weeks as Jakarta struggles to contain fires that have scorched large tracts of Borneo and Sumatra, with the smoke drifting into neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.