NEW YORK, Sept 26 — The current situation in Jammu-Kashmir is a result of the lack of regard for the United Nations and its resolutions, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

Answering a question from a student during the World Leaders Forum at Columbia University here, the Malaysian prime minister said "big and powerful countries just disregard the United Nations.

"And because we are helpless to do anything, what we are seeing now is that resolutions made by the United Nations don't seem to affect the thinking or policies of any country.

"As you know there is a resolution on Jammu-Kashmir in the United Nations and people should respect it.

"If you don't respect, one day you will be suffering from the disrespect of other resolutions,” he said.

Dr Mahathir added the only thing that could be done now was to appeal to India to adhere to the UN resolution.

"We cannot go to war with them, we cannot ask the world to invade India.

"So what we can do now is to appeal to India to go back to the resolutions of the UN, then we will have a much more peaceful nation, country and world,” he said.

To a question on whether more serious action should be taken against Indonesia over the persistent haze, Dr Mahathir agreed.

"Yes , you can blame Indonesia, you can criticise them. Say nasty things about them but if they continue to have their fires we will still have the haze.

"As you know the new president of Brazil believes in burning the forest for more agriculture. Nobody has stopped him yet.

"I think the system does not allow us to interfere in the internal affairs of countries.

"There will come a time when these burnings become so severe that the whole world will be enveloped by the haze and at that time I think the United Nations might say that this is not a national problem or a domestic affair but a problem for the world.

"And if it is a problem for the world, the world should exercise the right to take action. If we have that frame of mind, then we can do something when somebody refuses to accept help for putting out fires, for example.

"I think the Indonesians are suffering very much. Their API reading is 1,000.

"Perhaps then they will be more serious about controlling the fires in their country,” he added.