Hurricane Dean plows across eastern Caribbean

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hurricane Dean, upgraded to a powerful Category 3 storm on Friday afternoon, continued to plow west across the Caribbean on its way towards Jamaica, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.

At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), Dean was located about 840 miles

east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and about 260 miles south-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Dean was moving west at 21 miles per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, and was expected to hit Jamaica on Sunday afternoon.

The NHC said some strengthening was forecast during the next 24 hours and Dean could become a Category 4 storm with winds of 131 mph or higher on Saturday.

Most computer models still show Dean heading across the northern Caribbean, then skirting the northern tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula before making landfall just south of the Texas-Mexico border late Wednesday or early Thursday.

But one of the models shows the storm shifting to a much more northerly track, cutting through key oil and gas producing areas in the central Gulf of Mexico before plowing ashore in Louisiana.

The NHC said it expected Dean to weaken back to a Category 3 hurricane early Tuesday after crossing the northern Yucatan and moving into the western Gulf of Mexico.

The NHC will issue an intermediate advisory at 8 p.m.