MIAMI (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Isaac weakened slightly as it dumped heavy rain off Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on Thursday but it was expected to strengthen into a hurricane before tearing across the Dominican Republic and Haiti, U.S. forecasters said.

Isaac also posed a big threat to Florida, where it is on track to make landfall on Monday as the Republican National Convention is due get underway in Tampa.

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility of postponing or relocating the RNC convention, if the storm takes direct aim at the city on Florida's central Gulf Coast. But Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the convention was not his biggest concern, at least for now.

“People are spending a lot of time talking about that,” Fugate said of the convention. “I wish they'd be talking about making sure people in the (Florida) Keys are getting ready and that people in southwest Florida are getting ready,” he told CNN.

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