Cuba issues hurricane watch as weakened Ike looms

MIAMI (Reuters) - Cuba on Saturday issued a hurricane watch for its eastern provinces as Hurricane Ike weakened slightly in the Atlantic but still looked set to become a dangerously powerful storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said.

By 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), Hurricane Ike was located around 150 miles (240 km) east of Grand Turk island, and its top sustained winds had dipped to 110 miles per hour (177 km per hour), making it a strong Category 2 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, the hurricane Centre said.

(Reporting by Michael Christie, Editing by Eric Beech)