MANILA: Southeast Asian foreign ministers will during a meeting next month seek to tackle the transboundary haze blanketing parts of the region, Asean chair the Philippines said on Tuesday.

Forest and land fires that have raged for months in Indonesia have in recent weeks caused thick haze in Singapore and in Malaysia, which closed schools in several states last week after air pollution hit unhealthy levels

The wildfires, mainly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, are Indonesia's most intense in 11 years

"It's in the agenda," Philippine foreign ministry spokesperson Dominic Xavier Imperial said on Tuesday, referring to the preparatory foreign ministers' meetings in November ahead of the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations