Indonesia's military forced villagers off the slopes of the country's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, yesterday as it unleashed a new powerful explosion that claimed another victim and temporarily shut down an airport.

Troops stood guard in front of ash-covered homes and local television showed one woman being pinned to a stretcher as she screamed and cried in protest.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles to the west in Sumatra, aid workers were struggling to deliver food and other supplies to desperate survivors on islands hardest hit by a tsunami.

The twin catastrophes, striking earlier last week at different ends of the seismically active country, have killed at least 600 people in total and hundreds more are missing. All but 36 of the deaths were in the tsunami zone, where more than 700 homes were destroyed by a towering wave last Monday that left at least 23,000 people homeless.

At least 47,000 people who live around Mount Merapi, in Java, are staying in government camps or with friends and relatives, officials said.