An earthquake with magnitude of 6.4 rocked eastern parts of Indonesia on Monday evening, meteorology agency said in Jakarta.

The quake struck at 21:15 Jakarta time (1415 GMT) with epicenter at 52 km southeast of Melonguane in North Sulawesi and at 26 km in depth, an official of the agency said.

Two minutes later an aftershock with magnitude of 5.3 occurred with epicenter at 72 km northeast of Melonguane and at 98 km in depth, the official said.

The earthquake, according to a bulletin released by the Hong Kong Observatory, was measured at 6.0 on the Richter scale occurring near Talaud Islands, Indonesia at 1421 GMT.

The epicenter was initially determined to be 3.8 degrees north latitude and 126.5 degrees east longitude, about 310 kilometers northeast of Manado, Indonesia.

Indonesia sits on a vulnerable-quake hit zone so called the Pacific Ring of Fire, where two continental plates, stretching from stretching from western hemisphere to Japan, meet that cause frequent seismic and volcanic movement.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2009)