With 80 military trucks doing the heavy lifting, the government expected to move some 34,276 people to 31 state-run shelters during the day, Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz said in Manila.

In all, 29 hamlets around Mayon would be evacuated, provincial governor Fernando Gonzalez told reporters. But provincial officials said it was slow going, with farmers reluctant to leave their land for fear of looting.

Two more army platoons joined a brigade-size military force helping in the evacuation and a team of government doctors is on standby to prevent disease outbreaks in the shelters, said Cruz, also chairman of the civil defense office.

"The evacuation is ongoing. It has been going smoothly," he insisted.

Volcanologists have said an explosive eruption by Mayon, one of the country's most active volcanoes, could threaten about 60,000 people. It began abnormal activity in February and started emitting small lava flows on July 15.

Mayon has had 47 eruptions in recorded history, the latest being a mild outpouring of lava in June 2001. It buried the town of Cagsawa in the 19th century, killing an estimated 1,000 people.

In Legaspi city mayor Noel Rosal personally supervised the evacuation of 10,500 residents from four villages on Mayon's lower slopes.

"We are just waiting for them to gather some of their things before we take them to the major evacuation centers," he said, while admitting: "Some are reluctant to leave."

By mid-afternoon the mayor said the ongoing evacuation has led to "few arrivals" at the evacuation centers even though local governments put the word out that the process is mandatory.

"We have to secure their homes, that's why we got the help of the army. They would set up checkpoints to prevent a repeat of past experiences," he added.

The mayor said the mild lava eruption last month "gave us ample lead time to prepare the evacuation centers" -- mostly schools and other government buildings beyond the volcano danger zone.

They were stocked with a week's worth of food as well as sleeping facilities, while tap water and electricity connections were provided, officials said.

If an explosive eruption does occur for a longer period, "we have enough funds to cover the food, water, medicine and other requirements of this evacuation and tending to the people in the evacuation centers for the next several weeks or months," Cruz told a press conference.

He said 80 tents are on standby to serve as temporary schoolhouses for children displaced by the evacuees.

Mayon's environs were rocked early Monday by six successive volcanic blasts, followed by a fountain of lava from its crater. "This signifies that Mayon is almost ready to burst," said Ernesto Corpus, head of the volcanology section of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

By mid-morning the peak was covered in a dark cloud of volcanic material rising several kilometers above the crater.

The government's seismology institute on Monday raised a five-step volcano alert over Mayon to the next-highest level of 4, meaning an eruption could occur "within days", Corpus said.

Material thrown from the crater of the 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) mountain could threaten anyone within an eight-kilometer (five-mile) radius, the institute said in an advisory.

"Areas just outside of these (places) should prepare for evacuation in the event explosive eruptions intensify," it said.

"If a major hazardous eruption does occur either today or in the coming days, we will be recommending the appropriate extension of this danger zone possibly up to 10 kilometers," said Renato Solidum, the head of the volcanology institute.

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