Maximum sustained winds decreased to 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, making Tomas just barely a category one hurricane on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale.

It was moving west over open sea at 12 miles (19 kilometers) per hour and was expected to continue the same general motion for the next couple of days, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Hurricane force winds extended up to 15 miles (30 kilometers) from the center, about 265 miles (425 kilometers) west of Saint Lucia. And tropical storm force winds extended outward up to 150 miles (240 kilometers).

The Miami-based NHC, predicted "some additional weakening" by late Monday.

But its forecast track said Tomas could strike Haiti as a hurricane by late Friday with wind speeds between 74 and 110 miles (119 to 177 kilometers) per hour.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are huddled in the impoverished nation's precarious tent cities in the wake of a devastating January earthquake, even as Haiti also reels from a cholera outbreak.

On Saturday, Tomas damaged homes and downed power lines in Barbados and St. Lucia with strong winds and heavy rains that caused no loss of life on the resort islands.

The governments of Barbados, St. Lucia and France dropped all tropical storm warnings for several Caribbean islands, including the French overseas department of Martinique.

The water-logged Caribbean basin region has already endured a heavy 2010 rainy season, particularly for Central America and southern Mexico. The ground in many areas is saturated and more rain could easily trigger landslides and flooding.

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