Ivo weakens to tropical storm near Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Sep 21 (Reuters) Hurricane Ivo weakened to a tropical storm today on its way to Mexico's Baja California peninsula, where it is due to make landfall in a sparsely populated desert area in the coming days.

The US National Hurricane Center said Ivo had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, making it less than hurricane strength.

Ivo was more than 250 miles south of the beach and golf resort of Los Cabos and expected to hit further up the coast of the peninsula on Monday morning.

Hurricane Henriette slammed into Los Cabos earlier this month, killing two fishermen and a foreign tourist.

Henriette also flooded northern Mexico with driving rain, raging over the farming states of Sonora and Sinaloa.

REUTERS AK PM0330