New Caribbean tropical depression threatens Cuba

MIAMI (Reuters) - The 17th tropical depression of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season formed on Wednesday and was expected to strengthen into a storm or perhaps even a hurricane on a path that could threaten the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Cuba, U.S. forecasters said.

The depression, which would be called Tropical Storm Paloma when its top sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour, was 115 miles southeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua-Honduras border, at 4 p.m. EST, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The weather system, which formed in the last month of what experts correctly predicted would be a busier than normal Atlantic hurricane season, posed no threat to U.S. oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico, according to computer models.

The storm had sustained winds of 30 mph and was moving northwest at about 5 mph, the hurricane center said.

It was expected to move toward the border of Honduras and Nicaragua only briefly before being pulled northward and then northeastward, possibly threatening the wealthy British territory of the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, storm-weary Cuba and the central or southern Bahamas.

Impoverished Haiti, which is recovering from the ravages of four storms that killed more than 800 people in August and September, is also in the potential path.

Computer models varied on the future intensity of the system.

Two models called for it to reach "major" hurricane strength, Category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of at least 111 mph, before hitting Cuba, while another did not even take it to hurricane status.

The hurricane center's official forecast called for it to become a tropical storm within a day, and a hurricane, with sustained winds of at least 75 mph, in two days.

The Atlantic season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, has seen seven hurricanes and eight tropical storms.

(Reporting by Michael Christie, Editing by Jim Loney and Peter Cooney)