Philippine civil defence officials on Saturday put the country's north on notice for a typhoon that could hit the area early next week.

Typhoon Megi, packing sustained winds of 140 kilometres (87 miles) an hour near the centre, was churning slowly toward the northeast coast of the main island of Luzon, said government weather forecaster Leni Ruiz.

"It may eventually threaten extreme northern Luzon," he added.

The eye was plotted 980 kilometres off the coast at 9:00am (0100 GMT) and was expected to make landfall on Monday.

The category 1 typhoon was still too far away to affect any part of the country, the weather service said.

Tropical Storm Ketsana and Typhoon Parma struck Luzon within a week of each other in late September and early October last year, killing more than a thousand people.