Jakarta - Indonesia's officials decided to lift the tsunami warning released as soon as a powerful earthquake struck the country's north Sulawesi province earlier today, due to the fact that the tidal waves failed to materialize.

An official at Indonesia's National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said the tsunami warning was lifted, more than an hour after the 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck 138 kilometres north-west of Gorontalo in North Sulawesi at about 01:02 am Monday (1702 GMT Sunday).

"A tsunami warning was cancelled after no tidal wave took place following the quake," Subagyo, who like many Indonesians goes only by one name, said.