Washington - US forecasters were keeping watch over three storms in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, including one that left more than 60 people dead in Haiti and was on course for the south- eastern United States.

Tropical Storm Hanna, killed at least 61 people in Haiti, dumped rain on the Bahamas on Thursday and was expected to turn northward, taking aim for the US coast, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

It could come ashore on the border between the states of North and South Carolina by late Friday and a hurricane watch had been issued for the area.

Hanna was predicted to travel up the coast and a tropical storm warning had been issued from Savannah, Georgia to the North Carolina- Virginia border and a less serious tropical storm watch was in effect as far north as New Jersey. Hanna had sustained winds of 100 kilometres per hour.

The storm was being followed by Hurricane Ike, which late Wednesday gained strength to a destructive category 4 storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of 217 kilometres per hour. It was not yet near land.

The third tropical storm, Josephine, had weakened slightly and was moving slowly west-north-west in open water about 945 kilometres from the Cape Verde Islands.