Indonesia's president cuts short U.S. trip due to haze crisis

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's president Joko Widodo will return earlier than planned from an official trip to the United States due to a haze crisis at home, a palace official said on Monday.

Indonesia and the wider southeast Asian region have been suffering for weeks from smoke caused by smouldering forest fires in Sumatra and Borneo islands that authorities have struggled to contain.

"The president will return a day earlier and will not be going to the west coast of the U.S.," Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said, adding Widodo would fly back on Tuesday evening.

Widodo said planned meetings with Apple and Google in Silicon Valley on Wednesday would go ahead without him. They are aimed at attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investment into Indonesia's tech sector.

"I have asked several ministers to proceed with the meetings with the CEOs on the west coast," Widodo said in a statement released by the presidential palace in Jakarta, adding that he will fly directly to the haze-affected areas.

Widodo is scheduled to meet President Obama and business executives, including General Electric and Chevron officials, on Monday.

(This refiled version of the story fixes spelling of official's name in third paragraph)

(Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor; editing by John Stonestreet)