People look at a heat cloud on the slopes of the Mount Merapi volcano, June 3, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP)

    A new dome on Mount Merapi's top, made up of around three million cubic meters of lava, continued to grow, raising the fear of huge hot clouds sliding down the mountain's slope, official news agency Antara said on Saturday.

    With the new lava dome growing by an average of 200 cubic meters a day, the dome's stability would be disrupted, making it easy for the dome to slide down the slope, head of the Mount Merapi Section at the Center for Volcano logical Research and Technology Development (BPPTK) Subandriyo was quoted as saying.

    The new lava dome was first spotted on April 28.

    The 2,965-meter-high volcano showed a slight increase in activity on Saturday while it continued to belch out hot clouds, he said.

    Most of the hot clouds and lava trails flowed down the slope in the southwestern direction of Krasak, Boyong and Gendol Rivers. But since Thursday, lava trails also raced down the slope in the western direction of Sat, Senowo and Putih Rivers.

    On Thursday, Merapi sent sulfurous gas 1.2 kilometers into the sky, the highest since it was put under the top alert status on May 13.

    Merapi, located between Yogyakarta and Central Java Province, about 450 kilometers southeast of Jakarta, is one of the 65 volcanoes listed as the most dangerous in Indonesia. Enditem