The embankments were constructed after the volcano started spewing hot mud in a massive flow which engulfed villages and factories near Indonesia's second city of Surabaya, in eastern Java.

"Today we stopped all mud management work. We have been suffering for one year because of bad management," a protester who gave his name as Ali said.

"Why (try to) contain the mud if it keeps leaking?" he was quoted by Detikcom news portal as saying.

The dirt embankments have reportedly been cracking in places, leading to leaks of mud still flowing from the crater.

An official from the government agency managing the site said work was stopped for six hours before the protest ended peacefully.

"They did not cause any damage," Ahmad Zulkarnain told AFP.

Sludge has been spewing from a gas well since May 29 a year ago, when an exploratory gas drilling team pierced a layer of strata, according to experts.

Attempts by local and international engineers to plug the flow, including by dropping thousands of concrete balls into the yawning crater, have failed.

A new plan to build a concrete dam around the crater up to 48 metres (157 feet) high is being considered by the Indonesian government.

The mud has covered more than 600 hectares (1,500 acres), with the rooftops of houses barely visible in worst-hit areas.

Several hundred residents living in shelters after they were forced to flee their homes also briefly blocked a road in the area to protest the disaster, Detikcom said.

They are demanding better compensation from the Indonesian company blamed for the flow, Lapindo Brantas.

In Jakarta, victims and activists numbering several hundred protested in a park, calling for an end to the disaster. Earlier plans to march through the streets to the presidential palace were cancelled.

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