Britain's FTSE falls as travel stocks continue slide

* FTSE 100 down 0.5 pct

* Travel stocks stay weak after attacks

* Turkey's downing of Russian plane adds to uncertainty

* Babcock, Rolls Royce (LSE: RR.L - news) among gainers, defence budgets rising (Adds closing prices, detail)

By Kit Rees and Alistair Smout

LONDON Nov 24 (Reuters) - UK shares retreated on Tuesday, with the British travel sector down again after signs that armed attacks in France and Mali were dampening customer demand.

British travel and leisure stocks were hit after data from ForwardKeys showed new flight bookings to Paris, one of the world's most visited cities, have fallen by over a quarter in the week after the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people.

The FTSE 350 travel and leisure index fell 1.6 percent, down for a third straight trading session.

With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) an eye to the attacks, the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . State Department issued a global travel alert for Americans planning to go abroad, while the downing of a Russian jet near the Syrian border by Turkish fighter jets added to global tensions.

"There's a bit of geopolitical concern out there at the moment -- we've had a couple of incidents last week, and now today our screens are filled with pictures of this Russian jet being shot down over Syria by Turkey," Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets, said, adding this was dragging on travel-sensitive areas of the stock market in particular.

Budget airline carrier easyJet fell 3.2 percent, while International Consolidated Airlines Group was down 3.3 percent.

Intercontinental Hotels Group declined 2.6 percent, and tourism company TUI (LSE: TUI.L - news) retreated 1.7 percent.

Luxury firm Burberry fell 5 percent after Nomura downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy".

"Macroeconomic trends remain mixed for the luxury sector, and we believe consensus expectations may be too high for (2016), thus there is a risk of a sector de-rating," analysts at Nomura said in a note.

The FTSE 100 index was down 28.26 points, or 0.5 percent, at 6,277.23 points at the close, extending the previous session's losses.

Firmly in positive territory was engineering support services company Babcock International Group, up 3 percent after the company reported a rise in first half revenue and said that it was on track to meet its full-year expectations.

Babcock's business is expected to be lifted by increased defence spending by governments, which has also buoyed Rolls Royce over the last week.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) rose again by 3.3 percent to take gains since the start of last week to over 15 percent. The engine maker set out a turnaround strategy after four profit warnings in a year, and extended gains after its chief executive said it did not need M&A.

Product testing firm Intertek Group (Other OTC: IKTSF - news) also rose 3.3 percent on the back of a set of positive company results, beating revenue forecasts and reaffirming its full-year target. (Editing by Janet Lawrence)