Indonesia's religious ministry says there are errors in the direction worshipers face, or qibla, at 20 percent of the country's mosques.

The ministry's director for Islamic religion and Sharia law, Dr Rohadi Abdul Fatah said in a statement on Thursday that the problems occurred in mosques in quake-hit areas such as Yogyakarta, West Java and West Sumatra.

The ministry has founded a team to check the qibla in various areas of the country using compasses or GPS devices. Dr. Rohadi suggested mosque caretakers simply correct the direction worshipers pray toward, instead of renovating the whole building.

Islamic scholar named Mutoha Arkanuddin claimed a few weeks ago that 80 percent of mosques and Muslim graves in Indonesia did not reflect the correct direction of qibla. Qibla is meant to indicate the direction of Mecca.