MANILA, Philippines?A powerful new typhoon on Monday swept toward the Philippines, threatening to pull a storm hovering off northern Luzon back to the region for a second battering, weathermen said.

The typhoon, internationally known as ?Melor? with peak winds of 205 kilometers per hour and gustiness up to 250 kph, was designated locally as ?Quedan.?

Quedan entered the Philippine area of responsibility Monday afternoon, but it was way out in the Pacific and was forecast to move out and head toward Japan instead, said Prisco Nilo, administrator of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

Quedan was unlikely to affect any part of the Philippines, but PAGASA said it could pull back Tropical Storm ?Pepeng? (international codename: Parma) toward northern Luzon in what it called the ?Fujiwara effect.?

Named after a Japanese meteorologist, the phenomenon is defined by the US National Weather Service as the tendency of two nearby storms to move around a common pivot.

Pepeng could hit Ilocos Norte and the Batanes group of islands in the next three days if it follows the path of Quedan, Nilo said at a 5 p.m. news briefing.

Described as a potential supertyphoon, Pepeng slammed across Cagayan on Saturday afternoon and blew out into the South China Sea toward Vietnam on Sunday. But it was blocked by a high pressure area near Hong Kong.

Fujiwara effect

Pepeng lingered about 210 km northwest of Laoag City and was likely to remain there for the next several days, unless it gets pulled to Quedan like a magnet.

Nilo described this as the ?Fujiwara effect??a ?see-saw? interaction between Pepeng and Quedan.

In its 11 p.m. bulletin, PAGASA said Pepeng had intensified with sustained winds of 105 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 135 kph. Earlier in the day, Pepeng had peak winds of 95 kph.

?It?s possible that Pepeng would still intensify into a typhoon again because it is over the sea. Its source of energy is from the water vapor,? Nilo said.

Nathaniel Cruz, PAGASA deputy administrator, said stormy weather would prevail in northern Luzon, prompting the agency to raise Signal No. 3 anew over Ilocos Norte, after putting the province under Signal No. 2 earlier Monday when Pepeng slightly weakened.

Signal No. 2 was hoisted over Ilocos Sur, Abra, Apayao, Northern Cagayan, including Calayan and Babuyan Group of Islands and Batanes Group of Islands.

Signal No. 1 was up over La Union, Benguet, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Kalinga, and the rest of Cagayan.

No effect in Metro Manila

Rains are also expected in extreme northern Luzon in the next three days.

Pepeng will no longer affect Metro Manila, where cloudy skies and light showers were forecast, PAGASA said.

Quedan was forecast to move west northwest at 26 kph and plotted to be 780 km east northeast of Basco, Batanes, by Tuesday afternoon.

The typhoon is predicted to be at 1,080 km northeast of Basco, or 350 km east northeast of Okinawa by Wednesday afternoon.

The Associated Press (AP) said disaster and local officials had reported that five more people were reported killed when Pepeng battered the northern region at the weekend, bringing total fatalities in the area to 22.

More than 200,000 people were hit by the storm and a third of those were in temporary shelter areas due to floods and landslides. Power and communications have yet to be restored.

The AP also reported that a Panamanian-registered ship carrying refrigerated goods sank late Sunday off Taiwan, leaving one person dead and 10 crew missing. Rescue teams from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were searching for the crew, the news agency said.