MEXICO CITY - Tropical storm Orlene has intensified into a Category 1 hurricane and is expected to make landfall on Mexico's Pacific coast in coming days, the US National Hurricane Centre said on Saturday.

"On the forecast track, the center of Orlene should pass near or over Las Islas Marias Sunday night or Monday morning and reach the coast of mainland Mexico later on Monday or Monday night," the NHC said.

With maximum sustained winds of 120kmh, Orlene now qualifies as a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

As of 1500 GMT (11pm Singapore time), it was 330km south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes, in Mexico's western Jalisco state, and 440km south of the Islas Marias, off the coast of the northwestern state of Nayarit, the NHC said.

The storm is rumbling slowly northward but is expected to gain speed and take a more northeasterly path beginning late Saturday, the hurricane centre said.

Hurricanes tend to strike both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Mexico in a season that lasts from May to November.

In October 1997, Huricane Paula barreled into the Pacific coast as a Category 4 storm. It claimed more than 200 lives. AFP