The Ethiopia News Agency (ENA) said the volcano spewed lava on Sunday, forcing mainly salt-mining Afar nomads living around the mountain's range to escape.

"The volcano at Alama'ari locality in the Afar regional state forced residents of the nearby villages of Dayulu and Gomoyta to flee for their lives, two among them are still missing," regional official Mohamed Hayu told ENA.

"People living in nearby mountain ranges were also forced to retreat," he added.

The state's disaster prevention agency has dispatched investigators and relief supplies to the area that lies about 980 kilometres (600 miles) northeast of the capital, near the frontier with Eritrea and Djibouti, according to ENA.

The volcano's name was not given, and it was not immediately clear if it was Mount Arteale, the only active volcano in Ethiopia, which erupted some two years ago.

That eruption, releasing a thick blanket of ash and plumes of smoke, caused the displacement of more than 50,000 Afar nomads and the death of hundreds of livestock.

Arteale had been largely dormant for the previous six decades, but started to spew molten lava after a series of earthquakes rattled the region in September 2005.

Experts have previously said the eruptions were caused by the expansion of tectonic plates under the Great Rift Valley, which for years has been regarded as highly susceptible to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.