JERUSALEM, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Israeli defence electronics firm Elbit Systems reported slightly higher quarterly profit, boosted by higher sales and a growing order backlog.

Elbit, Israel's largest publicly traded defence firm, said on Tuesday it earned $1.25 per diluted share excluding one-time items in the second quarter, up from $1.23 a share a year earlier.

Revenue gained 6.7 percent to $749.6 million, led by growth in sales of land systems to Asia Pacific.

"Growth in our backlog over the last two years has led to our current positive revenue growth," said Chief Executive Bezhalel Machlis.

"We see a continuation of solid performance in geographic regions with strong emerging defence requirement ... particularly Asia-Pacific and Latin America, that together accounted for 39 percent of our revenues in the quarter."

Elbit's order backlog amounted to $6.3 billion, up from $6.2 billion a year ago. Some 69 percent of the backlog is outside of Israel and 60 percent is slated to be performed during the second half of 2015 and in 2016.

Elbit declared a dividend of 37 cents a share for the second quarter, up from 35 cents in the first quarter.

The company in May agreed to buy the cyber and intelligence division from Nice Systems for $158 million as it seeks to boost its presence in the fast-growing sector.

"The acquisition is an important part of our strategy to enhance our cyber capabilities, a sector in which we see strong growth potential over the coming years," Machlis said.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Mark Potter)