WRAPUP 6-Pakistan seeks to salvage economy as more flee floods

* Hundreds of thousands at risk, more flooding possible

* Pakistan wants to stay on track with IMF program

* U.S. sees threat to foreign aid workers, ministries

(Adds Pakistan finance minister's comments)

By Robert Birsel and Lesley Wroughton

SUKKUR, Pakistan/WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Pakistan
ordered fresh evacuations from Sindh province on Thursday as
the country struggled to bring relief to millions displaced by
flooding and sought international help to rescue its economy.

Pakistan's finance minister and central bank governor
joined International Monetary Fund talks in Washington that are
focused on salvaging the economy.

Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said his country wants
to keep pursuing an $11 billion IMF loan program and
demonstrate its resolve to make tough economic decisions,
dismissing reports that Pakistan might abandon the program.

"We want to remain on track with the IMF program because
that is a reform program that we are ourselves undertaking," he
told reporters outside the IMF headquarters.

Separately, the U.S. State Department said it had "threat
information" that foreign aid workers and Pakistani ministries
responding to the natural disaster may be targeted by
militants.
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For a graphic on Pakistan's floods, click

here

For a factbox on agricultural costs of floods, click
[ID:nSGE67P0BL]

For an analysis of risks to watch in Pakistan, click

r.reuters.com/pyj83n

For a slide show, click link.reuters.com/sum54n

For more Pakistan stories, click [AFPAK/], or click

link.reuters.com/kac58m
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In northern Sindh, local authorities issued a new
evacuation order for Shahdadkot, a town of about 300,000, for
the remaining few tens of thousands of people to leave as
floodwaters approached the town.

"Shahdadkot is certainly in danger," said relief
commissioner for Sindh Riaz Ahmed Soomro. "People have been
asked to evacuate, but it's a very big town. People had built
an artificial embankment but the pressure is increasing."

Downstream in Thatta, the towns of Sujawal, Daro and Mirpur
Batoro, with a combined population of 400,000, were ordered
evacuated after the swollen Indus river broke through an
embankment early Thursday morning.

Many residents of the Indus delta area, about 100 km (62
miles) east of Karachi, had already left, but "thousands"
remained, said Saleh Farooqi, director general of the National
Disaster Management Agency's Sindh office. "If a second levee
breaks, more towns could be inundated."

Floodwaters are beginning to recede across the country, but
because of high tides in the Arabian Sea and the possibility of
more rain, the risk of flooding remains in Sindh.

The spokesman for the powerful Pakistani Army said
difficulty in reaching certain areas, where 800,000 people are
accessible only by air, could fuel social unrest.

"If the aid doesn't reach certain areas, then yes, the
people will become restive," said Major General Athar Abbas.

The worst floods in decades have made the government more
unpopular, heightening concerns about a nation that is already
battling Islamist militants.

In Sukkur, to the north, flood victims crowded relief camps
and said incidents of disease were increasing.

"The children are getting sick," a man who called himself
Bangul told Reuters. "I myself am not feeling well."

He said some people had started returning to their
villages, even though many were still flooded. "We can only see
the roof and minaret of the mosque," he said. "We think maybe
it will take six months to dry up and then we can go back."

POSSIBLE TALIBAN THREAT

Pakistan's government, and its ally the United States, have
warned that the Islamist militants the military is battling may
try and exploit the chaos. Washington sees Pakistan as a
frontline state in its war against the Taliban and al Qaeda.

"We have information of ... potential targeting of foreign
relief workers in Pakistan as well as government ministries,"
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in
Washington, saying both countries were doing their utmost to
protect aid workers and to ensure relief operations continue.

While aid groups in Pakistan brushed off the reported
threats, the outgoing U.N. humanitarian chief, John Holmes,
told reporters at the United Nations he took them seriously but
added: "we will not be deterred."

One Pakistani government official said he did not think the
Taliban would attack as this would trigger a public backlash,
while army spokesman Abbas said he had not received reports of
any threat to aid workers.

Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan
(Taliban Movement of Pakistan), told Reuters: "We will not
tolerate American aid. They want to use it for their own
interest and don't want to help the people of Pakistan. They
have their own nefarious designs."

In Washington, Finance Minister Shaikh appealed for
understanding from the international community as he joined the
IMF talks, which began on Monday.

The delegation is expected to seek easier terms under the
IMF program agreed in 2008 to ensure the country can meet
fiscal and monetary targets and keep qualifying for IMF funds.

Pakistan aimed to ensure fiscal austerity, stay within
fiscal targets and reform public sector corporations to set the
stage for economic growth, he said.

IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said the talks were currently
focused on "getting a better sense of the impact of the floods
on the economy." He urged donors to give grants, not loans, for
rebuilding projects to avoid adding to Pakistan's debt burden.

The talks are likely to last until late next week. The
delegation is scheduled to meet World Bank President Robert
Zoellick on Sept. 1.

The floods have damaged at least 3.2 million hectares (7.9
million acres) -- about 14 percent of Pakistan's entire
cultivated land -- according to the United Nation's food
agency. The total cost so far in crop damages is about 245
billion rupees ($2.86 billion). [ID:nSGE67P0BL]

According to the United Nation's Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 60 percent, or $274.7
million out of $459.7 million, of funding for emergency
response has been met.
(Reporting by Augustine Anthony, Kamran Haider, Zeeshan Haider
and Rebecca Conway in Islamabad, Faisal Aziz and Sahar Ahmed in
Karachi, Robert Birsel in Sukkur, and Arshad Mohammed and Paul
Eckert in Washington; Writing by Chris Allbritton; Editing by
Sanjeev Miglani and Eric Beech)

(For more Reuters coverage of Pakistan, see:
here)