Thick haze from land-clearance fires in Indonesia has continued to shroud parts of Malaysia.

Visibility in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, remained poor on Monday as officials ordered schools closed in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor state.

Visibility in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, remains poor

Indonesia is working to control the blazes but so far cloud-seeding has not produced enough rain, an official says.

On Sunday Malaysia declared a state of emergency in two southern districts as air pollution levels reached a 16-year high, leaving two towns in virtual shutdown.

The Air Pollutant Index (API) in Kuala Lumpur was near the 200 level, or "very unhealthy", on Monday, while in Port Dickson, located across from Sumatra, it reached 335, or "hazardous".

The smog is being blamed on illegal land-clearing fires burning in Indonesia's Sumatra island, mainly in Riau province.

Indonesian authorities say close to 100 forest fires are still burning out of control, casting a thick pall of smog across hundreds of square kilometres, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes reported from provincial capital Pekanbaru on Sunday.

Malaysia's environment minister is scheduled to meet his Indonesian counterpart on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

Malaysian and Singaporean officials are also seeking to move forward a meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) haze committee to next week instead of in August, reports say.

(Source: BBC)