Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - A fire raging Central Kalimantan`s forest area has spread to the province`s Sebangau National Park, a provincial nature conservation official said.

"We noticed this fact when we flew over the Sebangau National Park," Yohanes Sudarto, head of the Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency, said here on Friday.

He said it was feared the fire would spread deeper and deeper into the national park as the park`s soil consisted of dry peat land.

Last year, the Sebangau National Park was also razed by a fire which destroyed around 30 hectares of its forest area.

Forest fires have affected at least eight provinces in Indonesia, namely North Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and South Sulawesi.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier instructed relevant agencies to impose legal sanctions on plantation owners who used fires to clear forest areas for plantations.

"Those who set forests on fire, mostly big plantation companies, must be prosecuted," Communication and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil said quoting the Head of State recently.

A total of 52,599 hot spots were found in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi from June to August 2006, Koes Saparjadi, an expert at the forestry ministry said in Yogyakarta recently.

From June to August this year, the country recorded 8,476.5 forest fires in seven provinces, he said at the Sixth Workshop on Asian Forest Partnership (AFP) that took place in Yogyakarta.