YOGYAKARTA, 27 April 2006 - There is no immediate need to raise the alert status for Indonesia's volatile Mount Merapi, despite magma moving higher inside the volcano, a leading vulcanologist said on Thursday. Merapi, which towers over the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta, has been spewing thick smoke for two weeks and triggering scores of tremors.

Government officials, including Yogyakarta sultan and provincial governor Hamengkubuwono X, have been urging residents to leave the foothills, saying Merapi could erupt as soon as Friday. "The magma is approaching the peak but has not reached the rim yet. Although we are on alert status, there is no rush to increase the level. It is not extremely worrying," Subandrio, head of the Merapi section at Yogyakarta's state-owned Center for Volcanological Research and Technology Development, told Reuters.

On Thursday morning, the area surrounding the volcano, which claimed almost 70 lives in a 1994 eruption and 1,300 in 1930, was bright with sunshine and farmers could be seen working at their fertile lands. The volcano has been placed on "Orange Code" -- the second highest alert level -- due to an increase in tremors. Officials have moved more than 600 people from the mountain but thousands remain living and working on its slopes.

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