Iceland has closed its the main airport and cancelled domestic flights after the country's most active volcano, Grimsvotn, began erupting. A plume of smoke has risen 20km (12 miles) into the sky from the volcano. But Iceland's Meteorological Office says the eruption should not cause widespread disruption to air traffic.

Last year, ash clouds from another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokul, led to the closure of a large section of European airspace. Governments feared that ash particles could cause aircraft engines to fail, and the closure caused chaos to air travellers.

Different ash

Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, a spokeswoman for the Isavia civil aviation authority - which has imposed a flight ban of 120 nautical miles (222 km) around Grimsvotn - said: "We have closed the area until we know better what effect the ash will have."

Keflavik airport, the country's main hub, will remain shut for the rest of the day, the authority said. But officials say the eruption is unlikey to have the same impact as last year's. Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, said the 2010 eruption was a rare event.

"The ash in Eyjafjallajokull was persistent or unremitting and fine-grained," he said.

"The ash in Grimsvotn is more coarse and not as likely to cause danger as it falls to the ground faster and doesn't stay as long in the air as in the Eyjafjallajokull eruption."