TOKYO: More than 200 flights were disrupted on Thursday as the first major typhoon of the season brought heavy rain and strong winds to remote islands in southern Japan, a report said.

Some 220 flights, mainly departing from and landing at Naha and other airports on islands in the prefectures of Okinawa and Kagoshima, were cancelled, affecting about 40,000 passengers, Kyodo News reported.

All Nippon Airways and Japan Transocean Air of the Japan Airlines group plan to cancel more than 50 flights leaving airports in Okinawa prefecture on Friday, it said.

At 8:40 pm (1140 GMT), Typhoon Morakot, which means "emerald" in Thai, was moving west at the speed of 15 kilometres per hour, packing wind gusts of up to 198 kilometres per hour, the meteorological agency said.

In Taipei, Taiwan's weather bureau urged residents to take precautions as the typhoon gained strength and churned towards the island.

Typhoon Morakot is expected to bring powerful winds and torrential rains over the weekend if it keeps its current course, the bureau said.

Financial markets and schools will be closed on Friday.

The bureau said if the typhoon keeps moving on the forecast course, it may make landfall in the northeast late Friday.

Taiwan is typically hit by a dozen or so typhoons in the summer which help replenish its water supply. The island's authorities are hoping Morakot will bring sufficient rains to help avert an imminent drought.

Tropical storm Linfa grazed the island in June and left four people injured. - AFP/de