"UNICEF has provided 280,000 litres over the past two days and will probably have to continue to do so," the spokesman for the UN children's agency, Damien Personnaz, said in a statement.

"Some 250,000 people out of a total population of about 670,000 (on the Comoros archipelago) ... are without drinking water, and it is very difficult to move water to certain areas," he said.

The Mount Karthala National Observatory has recommended that residents of Grand Comore observe caution as the 2,361-meter (7,746-foot) mountain continues to rumble.

Ash from the eruption blanketed the island last week, killing at least one infant, infiltrating homes, shops and offices and contaminating water in cisterns during the height of the dry season.

Authorities on Grand Comore, the largest of the three semi-autonomous islands in the Comoros, have appealed for international assistance to help in distributing potable water to those in need.

The eruption -- the second this year -- produced no lava flows but sent some 500 villagers fleeing from their homes in the shadow of the mountain. Almost all have now returned.

In April, nearly 10,000 villagers living at the base of the mountain fled their homes after ash sparked widespread fears of drinking water contamination among Grand Comore's 350,000 residents.

Mount Karthala last had a magma eruption in 1977, when lava destroyed the village of Singani, some 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Moroni, and toxic gas was released into the air but did not cause any deaths.

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