The UN weather agency says it is dropping "Isis", the name of an ancient Egyptian goddess that also happens to be the acronym for the Islamic State jihadist group, from its stocklist of Pacific hurricane names.

"Isis" was replaced with "Ivette" on an alphabetical list of hurricane names for the eastern north Pacific region next year.

The decision to scratch "Isis" from the list was taken by the World Meteorological Organisation's Hurricane Committee at a meeting in Costa Rica.

The WMO has six rotating lists of storm names that run from A to Z.