Cyclone Daman destroyed two villages on the small Fiji island of Cikobia early Saturday, according to a Radio New Zealand report from the capital, Suva.

The first cyclone of the 2007/08 season in the South Pacific, rated category four, which can have wind gusts up to 279 kilometres an hour, Daman passed directly over the island north-east of Fiji's second-largest island Vanua Levu.

Fiji's Disaster Management Office said Cikobia, where about 70 people live in two villages, was extensively damaged, but it was not immediately known if anyone was hurt.

Hurricane-strength winds also hit the northern part of Vanua Levu, where an unknown number of people sought shelter at evacuation centres in the town of Labasa overnight, the Fiji Times website reported.

Fiji's meteorological office said the worst was over, but parts of the island nation were still getting heavy rain and strong winds would continue for some time, Radio New Zealand reported.