``I can say it's getting better,'' said one official at the environment department in Kuala Lumpur.

``Visibility was 1 kilometer (km) last week. It's improving now, but has yet to reach the normal 8 to 10 km,'' he said. These distances range from half a mile to between 5 and 6 miles.

Opposition leaders said the government was playing down the severity of the situation after Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding said the smog offered no cause for alarm.

Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), urged the government to ``give greater priority to the health of Malaysians'' by releasing the smog pollution index twice a day.

Smog, or haze as it is referred to by the officials of Southeast Asian nations, returned at the weekend as a five-member team from the Olympic Council of Asia arrived to evaluate Malaysia's bid to host the 2006 Asian Games.

Government officials privately feared the smog might threaten Malaysia's chances. The OCA will decide the venue in November, from a field that includes India, Qatar and Hong Kong.

Thick smog blanketed parts of peninsular Malaysia including the popular resort of Penang over the weekend, stirring memories of fires in 1997, which swathed Singapore and Malaysia in smoke.

The head of Malaysia's tourism department on Monday played down a possible threat to tourism, saying the air had improved.

``I don't think visitors should fear visiting Malaysia,'' said Abdullah Jonid, director-general of Tourism Malaysia.

``It was only the Klang Valley that was affected, not the whole of Malaysia. The situation is nowhere near 1997 and it's not a health hazard to anyone,'' he told Reuters.

The Klang Valley includes the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

An environment official on the island of Penang said, ``It's (the smog) improving a bit. The Air Pollution Index (API) now reads 'moderate', but it's still unhealthy.''

Law said on Sunday the smog was temporary, with no need for alarm.

Law said as of Saturday only three areas had reported Air Pollution Index (API) readings above 100 with the rest reporting either good or moderate readings.

A reading between zero and 50 is considered to be ``good'', 51 to 100 is ``moderate'' and above 100 is considered ''unhealthy''.

Plantation firms on Indonesia's islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan have been accused of setting fires to clear land. Error: Unable to read footer file.