MIAMI, July 12 (Reuters) - A tropical storm warning was issued for Bermuda on Saturday as Hurricane Bertha neared the mid-Atlantic British colony, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected within the next 24 hours.

At 11 a.m. EDT, (1500 GMT) the top sustained winds of the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season were blowing at about 85 miles per hour (140 km per hour), making it a Category 1 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the hurricane center said. (Reporting by World Desk Americas)

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