Flights to airports closer to Mount Merapi -- including Yogyakarta, Solo and Bandung -- have also been affected but this is the first time that flights to the capital have had to be cancelled.

"Due to volcanic ash from Mount Merapi in Indonesia, flights to and from Jakarta are being temporarily suspended," Singapore Airlines said on its website.

"We have cancelled flights to Jakarta for today and one flight tomorrow... because of the ash," a Malaysia Airlines spokeswoman told AFP.

"We will continue monitoring the situation, it depends whether the ash clouds still surround the region of Jakarta," she said.

Jakarta lies some 430 kilometres (267 miles) away from the volcano.

Merapi killed 85 people in its latest eruption on Friday, with scores more suffering severe burns. The latest deaths bring the overall toll to 128 since the volcano started erupting on October 26.

The government on Tuesday issued an alert telling airlines to avoid the skies over central Java.

Experts have also warned that the eruption could continue for months, threatening continuing major disruption to aviation.

The international airport at Yogyakarta is closed until at least Sunday morning as ash clouds billowed from the 2,914-metre (9,616-foot) mountain to the altitude of cruising jetliners.

Merapi killed around 1,300 people in 1930 but experts say the current eruptions are its biggest convulsions since 1872.

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