UPDATE 1-Australia's Westpac H1 profit falls, cuts div

(Adds quotes, details, dividend)

SYDNEY, May 6 (Reuters) - Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX), Australia's second-largest bank, reported weaker half-year earnings on Wednesday, as bad-debt charges tripled, and joined its rivals in cutting dividends and warning of worse to come.

Westpac, which last year swooped during the credit crisis to buy smaller rival St George bank, reported a 6 percent fall in cash earnings on a pro-forma basis, which consolidates St George's earnings into the year-ago period to aid comparison.

On an unadjusted basis, group earnings rose 16 percent for the six months to March, but still below analysts' forecasts.

"We think the economy will recover as we go into 2010, but our view is that the recovery will be quite fragile, quite slow," Westpac Chief Financial Officer Phil Coffey told reporters.

He said the Australian economy, now acknowledged by the central bank to be in recession, was entering a second, deeper phase which would hit all the major domestic banks.

"All Australian banks are going to feel that pressure," Coffey said, predicting slower loan growth, weaker revenue growth and continuing high bad-debt charges into next year.

Bad-debt charges and other impairments triped, on a pro-forma basis, to A$1.6 billion ($1.18 billion) from a year earlier, wiping out a 15 percent jump in revenues and leading Westpac to cut its interim dividend by 20 percent to 56 cents a share.

It was the third bank to cut its dividend after it larger rival, National Australia Bank (NAB.AX) (NAB), and fourth-largest lender Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) (ANZ.AX). NAB and ANZ had also warned of tougher times ahead when they reported their earnings last week. ($1=1.351 Australian Dollar) (Reporting by Mette Fraende; Editing by Mark Bendeich)