  Potential energies, moments of inertia, quadrupole and octupole moments of
dinuclear systems are compared with the corresponding quantities of strongly
deformed nuclei. As dinuclear system we denote two touching nuclei (clusters).
It is found that the hyperdeformed states of nuclei are close to those of
nearly symmetric dinuclear systems, whereas the superdeformed states are
considered as states of asymmetric dinuclear systems. The superdeformed and
hyperdeformed states constructed from two touching clusters have large octupole
deformations. The experimental measurement of octupole deformation of the
highly deformed nuclei can answer whether these nuclei have cluster
configurations as described by the dinuclear model.
