The death and damage caused by Hurricane Irene means the name is being withdrawn from a rotating list of storm titles, the UN weather agency said on Tuesday.

"Irene" will be replaced by "Irma" after meterologists decided any future use of the name could cause upset.

Irene hit the Atlantic in August last year and was responsible for 49 deaths, most of them in the United States, and billions of dollars of damage.

The decision was made by the World Meteorological Organization's hurricane committee at their annual meeting in Florida.

"Names are withdrawn if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name would be insensitive," said the WMO in a statement.

Previous names to have been removed from the Atlantic tropical storm list include "Katrina" after the US hurricane which devastated the south in 2005 and "Mitch" which hit Honduras in 1998.

Residents on alert near Mexico volcano
Xalitzintla, Mexico (AFP) April 17, 2012 - Residents reported roaring noises from the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City Tuesday after signs of increased activity prompted authorities to raise alert levels.

"We can hear the roar of the volcano. Sometimes we can feel vibrations in our legs from its force," said Concepcion Perez, from the town of Xalitzintla in the central state of Puebla, seven miles (12 kilometers) from the crater.

Authorities raised the alert level late Monday to "yellow phase three," extending a security radius around the towering, glacier-clad volcano 35 miles (55 kilometers) from the Mexican capital.

Officials in Puebla prepared temporary shelters in case of evacuations.

The National Disaster Prevention Center said Tuesday that activity within the volcano appeared to be diminishing, but they maintained the alert level.

Popocatepetl, Mexico's second highest peak, means "smoking mountain" in the indigenous Nahuatl language.