(Updates with typhoon downgraded to tropical storm, changes dateline) HO CHI MINH CITY, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Thousands evacuated their homes and ships were called in to shore as Typhoon Durian approached Vietnam's coast on Monday, but forecasters predicted it would make landfall as a tropical storm. The storm, named after a pungent and spiky-skinned Asian fruit, battered the Philippines over the weekend, killing up to 1,000 people there, many of them in mudslides. The Web site Tropical Storm Risk (http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/) showed Durian in the South China Sea, and moving towards land southeast of Ho Chi Minh City on Monday night or early Tuesday before going further west into Cambodia. Earlier, Vietnam's National Centre for Hydro and Meteorology forecast Durian would make landfall in the south-central coastal provinces of Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan. It was forecast to dump heavy rains on Vietnam's central coffee-growing area during peak harvest time. Vietnam is the world's second-largest producer of coffee after Brazil. Passengers on a Vietnam Airlines flight reported turbulence over coffee-growing Daklak province as the weather worsened. Ho Chi Minh City, the country's commercial hub, was overcast. Authorities in Vietnam -- where hundreds, if not thousands, of people are killed each year in tropical storms and typhoons -- are working to improve procedures to save lives after hundreds of fishermen were lost in a typhoon named Chanchu in May this year. In October, another typhoon, Xangsane, killed at least 70 people and destroyed or submerged hundreds of thousands of homes when it struck the central coastal city of Danang, despite early warnings and preparations. With the approach of Durian, authorities called in fishing vessels and ordered oil firms to check their rigs and off-shore stations in southern waters. People on land were warned of strong winds, flash floods and especially landslides after the storm. One Vietnamese fisherman died and three were missing after their boats sank while trying to take shelter.
