(Updates with details, background)

By Kristina Cooke

NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) - Investors requested just $1.7 billion in loans for the second round of the Federal Reserve's program to revive consumer lending, raising fears that the lack of demand could slow efforts to rescue the economy.

Despite an expanded list of eligible securities in the April round of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), the amount of loans requested was 64 percent less than the $4.7 billion in its March debut, showing investors remain wary of taking part in the program.

The loans requested so far are a small fraction of the up to $200 billion the U.S. central bank has pledged to lend in the first phase of the TALF and the Fed has said the program could grow to $1 trillion.

"The expectation was that it would be bigger in the second round," said Ron D'Vari, chief executive and co-founder of New York-based advisory and asset management firm NewOak Capital.

"At the current level it would take something like 60 years to fill the $1 trillion size of the Fed's program."

The program, which is intended to jump-start securitization markets that have collapsed since the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble, is central to official financial rescue plans.

As part of the government's public private investment program, the TALF will be expanded to include so-called "legacy" assets, which are primarily securities backed by failing or distressed commercial and residential mortgages written during the housing boom.