UPDATE 1-Foster Wheeler profit climbs, CEO to retire

(Recasts, adds details, analysts' forecast)

NEW YORK, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Engineering and construction company Foster Wheeler Ltd (FWLT.O) posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, but said its power plant business in North America was slowing.

The company also announced that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Raymond J. Milchovich would retire next year.

Net earnings climbed to $160.8 million, or $1.11 a share, from $71.9 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding an $18.3 million asbestos-related gain, the company posted quarterly earnings of $142.5 million, or 98 cents a share, topping analysts' average forecast of 84 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenues rose to $1.7 billion from $1.19 billion.

Foster Wheeler said its engineering and construction group booked $538 million in new orders during the quarter, bringing its backlog of work to $1.8 billion at the end of June, up 26 percent from a year earlier.

But its power group added $191 million in new orders, sharply down from the $550 million booked in the year-ago quarter, as North American customers deferred prospective projects because of increased environmental scrutiny, rising costs and fears about the economy.

Backlog at the power group stood at $1.5 billion at the end of the quarter, up 10 percent from a year earlier.

"In our (global power group) -- consistent with our guidance at the end of the first quarter of this year -- we are seeing delays but not cancellations in some North American prospects," Milchovich said in a statement.

The company would seek to offset that slowness by focusing on markets outside North America, he added. (Reporting by Matt Daily and Euan Rocha; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, editing by Dave Zimmerman)