Typhoon Cimaron was downgraded to a tropical storm on Friday afternoon and will continue to weaken as it moves southwest in the South China Sea, meteorologists said Friday.

The storm was centered about 730 kilometers east of Sanya City, south China's island province of Hainan, packing winds of up to 82.8 km per hour, said the provincial meteorological observatory of Hainan.

The tropical storm was forecast to move southwest at a speed of10 km per hour and weaken into a tropical depression within the next 30 hours, it said.

Offshore areas around the island can expect gales of 30 to 50 km per hour, according to the observatory.

Cimaron, the Philippine word for "wild ox", formed last Friday east of the Philippines and had reached the status of severe typhoon. It lingered in the South China Sea for about 50 hours.

(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2006)