SINGAPORE'S elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew today urged Asian countries to pool their resources to protect the environment. "Air pollution needs no passports and respects no boundaries," he said in a speech here at The Nature Conservancy's Asia Pacific inaugural meeting.

"Our environment depends on factors beyond our borders," said Lee, who is a co-chairman of the Asia Pacific council.

"We may have solved our domestic air pollution but the quality of the air we breathe is affected by the activities of our neighbours," he added.

The environment is Asia's most pressing concern and governments need to forge partnerships with business leaders and non-government organisations to conserve the environment, he said.

Turning to the forest fires raging once again in the Indonesian island of Sumatra, Lee said "we must work together ... to help Indonesia enforce its law and develop a sustainable strategy for developing its vast forest resources."

In 1997 much of the region was blanketed for months by thick smog as a result of forest fires in Sumatra and Borneo, causing extensive health, transport and tourism problems, as well as costing billions of dollars in lost revenue.

Satellite pictures released last month by the Meteorological Service Singapore showed more than 200 fires burning in Sumatra in the second week of July, up from 50 in June.

Indonesian authorities, under pressure to prevent a repeat of the 1997 regional smog episode, last month threatened to take to court companies which set fires to clear forest lands.

The Nature Conservancy is a non-profit organisation based in the United States.