East China's Zhejiang Province has alerted low-lying coastal areas of the approach of a tropical storm that formed early on Monday in the western Pacific.

Tropical storm Man-Yi was centered around 9.4 degrees north latitude and 142.7 degrees east longitude at 8:00AM, packing winds of up to 72 kilometers per hour, according to the China Central Meteorological Station.

Man-Yi formed around 2:00AM Monday east of the Philippines. The storm would continue to gain strength, moving northwestward at a speed of 25 kilometers per hour, it said.

The flood control authorities of Zhejiang instructed coastal areas to be alert, though forecasts said it was unlikely to affect China's offshore areas in the next three days.

On August 10 last year, typhoon Saomai hit Zhejiang and neighboring Fujian provinces, killing at least 483 people.

The last tropical storm, Toraji, affected about one million people when it hit the southern coast of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Thursday, but no casualties were reported.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2007)