We address the issue whether the central parts of the Galaxy harbour young clusters other than Arches , Quintuplet and the Nuclear Young Cluster .
A large sample of centrally projected cluster candidates has been recently identified from the 2MASS J,H and K _ { s } Atlas .
We provide a catalogue of higher angular resolution and deeper images for 57 2MASS cluster candidates , obtained with the near-IR camera SOFI at the ESO NTT telescope .
We classify 10 objects as star clusters , some of them deeply embedded in gas and/or dust clouds .
Three other objects are probably star clusters , although the presence of dust in the field does not exclude the possibility of their being field stars seen through low-absorption regions .
Eleven objects are concentrations of stars in areas of little or no gas , and are classified as dissolving cluster candidates .
Finally , 31 objects turned out to be the blend of a few bright stars , not resolved as such in the low resolution 2MASS images .
By combining the above results with other known objects we provide an updated sample of 42 embedded clusters and candidates projected within 7 ^ { \circ } .
As a first step we study Object 11 of Dutra & Bica ( 2000 ) projected at \approx 1 ^ { \circ } from the nucleus .
We present H and K _ { s } 
photometry and study the colour-magnitude diagram and luminosity function .
Object 11 appears to be a less massive cluster than Arches or Quintuplet , and it is located at a distance from the Sun d _ { \odot } \approx 
8 kpc , with a visual absorption A _ { V } \approx 15 .