Lack of funds have seriously hampered Indonesia's efforts to put out illegal cropland fires which have sent the choking haze to other parts of South-East Asia in the past several days, local media reports said yesterday.

Thick haze from illegal land-clearing fires and plantation estates had reduced visibility in some places of Borneo to only about 50cm, forcing commercial airplanes to delay or cancel flights to several cities.

"We have run out of the operational funds. Without funds, it's impossible for us to combat the fires. We need to buy fuel for extinguisher tools, as well as for transportation," Agung Catur, head of the fire-fighting task force in central Kalimantan province, told the state-run Antara news agency.

Local authorities in south Sumatra province claimed that fires raging on peat land had been difficult to extinguish because the blaze's sources were located 3m underground.

South Sumatra Governor Syahrial Oesman, admitted defeat and hoped for rainfall to douse illegal forest fires that caused the acrid haze blanketing large areas of the region.

"Only the rain can put out the fires. So, let us pray and hope to Allah for immediate rain," Oesman was quoted as saying by an Indonesian daily Media Indonesia.

Fires burning in Kalimantan on the Indonesian side of Borneo island, and Sumatra, also forced local authorities to shut down schools, and were blamed partly for land, river and aircraft accidents.

Neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore have complained that the choking smoke from Indonesia has affected their air quality.