  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 Ks 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 degrees. As a first step we study Object 11 of
Dutra & Bica (2000) projected at approximately 1 degree from the nucleus. We
present H and Ks 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=8 kpc, with a
visual absorption Av=15.
