The official death toll from Mount Merapi, meanwhile, was revised upward this week to 194 as authorities included those who died from respiratory problems, heart attacks and other illnesses.

The notoriously unpredictable mountain, located in the heart of Java island, roared back to life two weeks ago, spewing searing clouds of gray soot and debris up to four miles (six kilometers) into the air almost daily, with lava and rock cascading down its slopes.

More than 350,000 people have been evacuated to cramped emergency shelters.

On Thursday, ash spreading over western Java was falling just short of the capital, said Gordon Jackson, a meteorologist with the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Darwin, Australia.

"Right now, all flights are operating normally," said Frans Yosef, the manager at Jakarta's main international airport.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the Pacific Ocean.

AP