A helicopter flew over the region Tuesday and reported the lava flow was headed from Mount Bagana towards the village of Torokina about eight kilometers (six miles) away, The National newspaper reported.

Villagers contacted by the pilot via radio said they feared for their safety, it said.

But authorities said the main concern was for newer villages set up closer to Mount Bagana by people displaced during a 10-year civil war on Bougainville which ended in 2001.

"The lava is about eight to nine kilometres from the village of Torokina, but since the crisis in Bougainville, a number of newer villages have been set up closer to the volcano and it's these people we are more worried about," Ima Itikarai, PNG's chief government volcanologist, told the Australian Associated Press.

Attempts at establishing communication with the smaller villages have so far failed, The National said.

Papua New Guinea, a nation of five million, lies on a Pacific volcanic belt known as the "Ring of Fire".

It has a number of active volcanos, notably on New Britain island where Mount Pago erupted in August 2002, forcing the evacuation of some 15,000 villagers.

TERRA.WIRE