ZURICH (Reuters) - Bleaker global growth prospects are keeping Swiss engineer ABB (>> ABB Ltd.) cautious about its prospects, despite a bigger-than-expected rise in third-quarter orders and a return to profit at its troubled power systems business.

The company, which makes products such as industrial robots and power grid transformers, said on Wednesday slowing growth in Europe, the Ebola health crisis in west Africa and political tensions across the globe all risked derailing more positive trends in the U.S. and Chinese economies.

"There is definitely a rising level of uncertainty in the world," Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer said in a video message.

Like rivals Siemens (>> Siemens AG) and Schneider Electric (>> SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC), ABB has grappled with a sluggish global recovery that has delayed capital spending by its customers, which include utility companies and oil, gas and mining firms.

With little sign of improvement, ABB cut its mid-term sales and profit goals last month, but said it still expected to grow faster than its markets and the overall economy.

In recent months, ABB has registered a pick-up in large orders -- contracts worth over $15 million -- suggesting its strategy of hunting out profitable growth is bearing fruit.

The Zurich-based firm said third-quarter orders jumped 24 percent to $11.2 billion, beating the average forecast of $10.1 billion (6.29 billion pounds) in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Orders were boosted by larger contracts -- including an $800 million order for a subsea power link in Scotland -- while the company noted positive demand from customers in oil, gas and general industry. Service orders rose 10 percent.

Shares in ABB, which have shed over 11 percent of their value in the past six weeks on growing worries about the health of the global economy, were up 1.8 percent at 20.12 Swiss francs by 11:00 a.m. BST. The European industrial goods and services index <.SXNP> was up 0.3 percent.

UNCERTAIN TIMES

Still, a weaker order backlog from the start of the year and efforts to fix its power systems business left their mark on the quarter, as revenues fell 7 percent to $9.8 billion and net profit dropped 12 percent to $731 million.

Spiesshofer said some customers, mainly connected with infrastructure projects, had delayed the receipt of shipments in the last couple of weeks of the third quarter as uncertainty about the global recovery grew.

British engineer Rolls-Royce (>> Rolls-Royce Holding PLC) said last week customers in the oil, gas, mining and industrial sectors were cancelling or delaying orders.

Despite the uncertainty, Spiesshofer said the company could still keep growing orders.

"We have done our homework and we know where the pockets of growth are," he told Reuters in an interview, adding he expected Germany to continue investing in productivity improvements, while the company saw good underlying growth in automation and power in the United States.

One area of concern, however, was European energy policy. Without a clear, predictable policy, ABB's customers would continue to delay large projects in the region, he said.

Spiesshofer said ABB would not carry out any large-scale takeover deals this year as it focused on integrating previous purchases and turning around its power systems division.

The unit broke even in the third quarter, suggesting ABB's measures to fix the business are bearing fruit.

In the medium-term, Spiesshofer said ABB would be on the lookout for complementary acquisitions both in power and automation.

(Editing by Mark Potter)

By Caroline Copley