South East Asia breathes sigh of relief as rains ease smog crisis

Persistent rains have cleared the air across vast stretches of Southeast Asia that have choked for weeks on hazardous smoke from Indonesian fires, with officials expressing hope Thursday the crisis could soon end.

 Parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore enjoyed the cleanest air in two months, while affected areas of the Philippines and Thailand also gained a respite from pollution that has sickened hundreds of thousands, disrupted air travel and fuelled anger at Jakarta.

 "We can see clouds again!" Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen gushed in a Facebook posting that include a picture of now-unfamiliar blue skies taken from his office.

 "I am sure that all of us in Singapore woke up this morning and felt so good that we had clear blue skies again."

 Malaysia's top weather forecaster declared the region's rainy season -- crucial to putting out the annual outbreak of smoke-belching Indonesian forest and agricultural fires -- had begun.

 "We should have blue skies and no more haze," Che Gayah Ismail, director-general of the country's Meteorological Department, told AFP, adding that any further smoke would be blown away from the region.

 The fires and resulting region-wide pollution occur to varying degrees each year during the dry season as vast Indonesian plantation lands are illegally cleared by burning.