Jakarta – More than 200 burning seams of coal could threaten huge areas of forest in East Kalimantan province, an environmental official said on Wednesday.

"According to our inventory, of the 300 fire spots only 87 have been extinguished. The rest, a total of 213, are still active," the head of the East Kalimantan Environmental Impact Management Agency, Kaspul Basran, said as quoted Antara.

Basran said the fires were all burning in exposed coal seams. With the possible arrival of the El Nino phenomenon they could lead to forest and ground fires if extremely dry conditions prevail.

Efforts to extinguish the seams are time-consuming and costly, Basran said, with the ground having to be excavated first. The extinguishing of the 87 hot spots was conducted in cooperation with the US Office for Surface Mining.

Basran said his office had trained 350 local people to anticipate the threat of widespread fires during the dry season. Some 150 others have also been trained to fight coal seam fires.

Burning coal seams have been a major cause of forest fires in Kalimantan during the dry season. In 1997 and 1998, fires on Kalimantan and Sumatra, which wereoften started to clear land for cultivation, led to months of choking smoke and haze over the region.