Anger over Indonesia's inability to douse forest fires which have smothered parts of Malaysia with a dangerous haze mounted today as the crisis worsened in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

The opposition DAP held a protest at the Indonesian embassy in pollution-shrouded Kuala Lumpur, handing out paper face masks and calling for compensation.

"The Indonesian government must know the Malaysian people are angry," DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng said, adding that these were "the sentiments of all Malaysians."

Some 60 party members and supporters unfurled banners proclaiming: "We condemn Indonesia for not stopping the haze" and "Indonesia must pay compensation because of the haze".

Malaysia declared a state of emergency yesterday in two towns on the west coast which have borne the brunt of the smoke from Indonesia's Sumatra island, separated from peninsular Malaysia by the narrow Malacca Straits.

The air pollution index (API) on Thursday reached 529 in Port Klang, a major shipping centre, and 531 in Kuala Selangor. An API above 300 is considered hazardous and 500 triggers a state of emergency.

By today morning the haze had cleared slightly on the west coast, but in Kuala Lumpur the index jumped from 321 to 365, shrouding the city in a white mist reeking of wood smoke.

Action promised

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono responded to the tensions Friday by pledging to take firm action against those responsible for the hundreds of fires raging on Sumatra, where farmers use fire to clear land.

His spokesman Dino Patti Jalal said the president told Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in a phone call "that the government would do all it can and utilise local and national apparatuses to put out the forest fires."

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said a team of 100 firefighters was waiting for permission to head to the Indonesian island of Sumatra to help extinguish the fires and eliminate the clouds of smoke engulfing the west coast of Malaysia.

He said Indonesia had accepted the offer of help but that "bureaucratic" hurdles were holding up the firefighters' departure.

Najib said a total of 125 men, 25 from the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) and 100 firefighters, were ready to depart as soon as they get the green light from Jakarta.

Cloud seeding

Najib also said he had ordered the Environment Ministry to conduct cloud seeding in the hope of dousing the haze with rain.

Malaysia's government has said it would not take a confrontational approach with the Indonesian government because of the greater need to preserve their troubled relationship.

It has also conceded that Malaysian-owned palm oil and rubber plantations on Sumatra are at least partly responsible for the pollution crisis.

Abdullah said Thursday that Plantations and Commodities Minister Peter Chin would met with those responsible and call on them to stop the fires.

Indonesian Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban and Malaysian Environment Minister Adenan Satem met in the city of Medan on Sumatra Thursday to discuss the crisis.

The two sides agreed to cooperate on preventing people using fire to clear land and to carry out cloud-seeding to induce rain.