New Delhi, April 10 -- Cyclone Maila, which had intensified into a category five storm, has weakened as it continues its slow progress across the Solomon Sea.

After being pegged as one of the strongest storms of the season, Cyclone Maila weakened over the past 24 hours, initially getting downgraded to category four, before being downgraded again to category three on Friday.

The storm is expected to make landfall along the coast in Australia's Queensland early next week.

According to the latest bulletin by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), Cyclone Maila was positioned between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and was moving southwestwards at a sluggish pace of 8 kilometres per hour.

As of 0000 hrs UTC on Friday, Cylone M...