MIAMI, USA - Hurricane Dean threatened to become a dangerously powerful storm as it plowed toward the Caribbean and aimed for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and the oil rigs of the Gulf of Mexico beyond, U.S. forecasters said on Thursday.

More immediately in the path of the 2007 Atlantic storm season's first hurricane were the Lesser Antilles, especially the islands of Dominica and St. Lucia and the French territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe, the U.S. National Hurricane center said.

The hurricane's top sustained winds had reached 100 miles per hour (160 kph) by 5 p.m. EDT/2100 GMT, making it a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Computer models showed the hurricane could become an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm south as it passed just south of Jamaica early next week.

Category 3 to 5 hurricanes, such as Katrina, Rita and Wilma in the devastating 2005 Atlantic storm season, are generally the most destructive storms.