The village authority of Miyake Island, 180 km south of Tokyo, will lift a nearly four-year-old evacuation order on islanders by early next year, despite ongoing volcanic activity there, village officials said Thursday.

Miyake Village Mayor Sukeyasu Hirano will ask Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on Tuesday for the metropolitan government's support for the plan to allow the residents to resettle on the island, they said. The volcanic island is under Tokyo's administrative jurisdiction.

A series of eruptions of Mount Oyama at the center of the island, beginning in July 2000, prompted the issuance of an evacuation order in September that year.