CINCINNATI -- With Russian troops pushing into Georgia, Keith Harrison was working his e-mail back in Cincinnati. The first thing he wanted to know: Were Procter & Gamble Co. employees accounted for? Yes, was the answer. Then, did they and their families want to be evacuated? No, came the response.

"I'm more concerned with some of the longer-term issues, but those have got to play out," Harrison said of the Georgia-Russia crisis that erupted into a five-day war in August.

It's another example of the new challenges U.S. consumer products companies face as they increasingly tap into emerging markets for sales growth.

Countries with economies and governments undergoing turmoil and conflict can be tricky places to do business. In 2006, P&G set up a convoy to get employees out of Lebanon during the Israel-Hezbollah war. Pakistan's government change and violence have also been among recent concerns at P&G offices.

"It's a highly unpredictable world out there," Harrison said. "Developing markets by their nature are more volatile. ... You need a different level of agility ... on a variety of fronts."

But with the U.S. economy mired in a slump, companies from P&G -- the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers -- to McDonald's Corp., PepsiCo Inc. and General Motors Corp. are looking to countries such as China, India and Brazil and their burgeoning consumer classes for sales.

Millions of people in the developing economies are coming out of poverty every year, and many are eager to consume -- soft drinks, fast-food chicken, skin cream, vehicles.

"One of the things that happens when they get some money to spend is they want to buy the products that these companies are selling. People are the same everywhere," said Harold Sirkin of Boston Consulting Group, a co-author of "Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything."

Rapidly developing economies account for 3.5 billion people, slightly more than half the world's population, Sirkin said. China and India alone account for more than a third, with China's population of 1.3 billion four times that of the U.S.

The numbers make a good case for expanding in new markets, despite the inherent risks. Yum Brands Inc., parent of the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains, now draws more than half its profits from overseas, offsetting sluggish U.S. business.

Yum reported Oct. 7 that strong overseas sales, especially in China, more than offset a drop in U.S. results as its third-quarter profit rose 5 percent.

Yum is on pace to open at least 1,400 new restaurants this year in China and its international divisions. Yum's chief financial officer, Rick Carucci, said the company sees plenty more opportunity overseas from the continued growth of the middle classes.

P&G says emerging markets now account for 30 percent of its $83.5 billion yearly sales and half of its annual sales growth, and a key part of its long-term strategy.

"There's no question that the basic demographics are going to take the center of gravity of our business to Asia, to Africa -- where the people are, where the babies are being born," said Robert A. McDonald, chief operating officer.

P&G is going ahead with plans to expand operations by building a second plant in Pakistan despite violence that followed a recent shift in power. But besides such upheaval, analysts say there are other issues in emerging markets: working around infrastructure problems and local politics, understanding consumer and cultural differences, and building and protecting brand identity and reputation.

U.S. companies have run into controversy:

-- Pepsi and rival Coca-Cola Co. battled allegations in India that their drinks had pesticide residue and complaints that they are using vital water supplies in some regions.

-- Starbucks last year closed a coffeehouse in Beijing's Forbidden City after protests that it was inappropriate for such a historically important Chinese site.

-- P&G faced rumors in Egypt and other Arab countries that its Ariel detergent was somehow connected to Israel and former leader Ariel Sharon.

But analysts say the sheer numbers and trends are on the side of the U.S. companies in countries where there are still much lower rates of household penetration and average sales than in their developed markets, with incomes and economies growing at a faster rate.

In Brazil, recent economic growth has widened the consumer base, especially in the South American nation's vast rural regions and among its lower-income city dwellers.

"Buyers are becoming more conscious of companies and are buying more branded products," said Marcel Moraes, a Credit Suisse analyst.

"What you have is lots of new consumers," said Maria Eugenia Saldania, director of the Brazilian Association of Cleaning Products Manufacturers. "People who were too poor to buy cleaning products or used informal (homemade) cleaning products are now buying these products. You also see people who used to only buy essential products buying more nonessentials like fabric softeners."

Throughout its global system, P&G says it tries to hire mostly natives and makes sure key managers learn about consumers by spending time in their homes, some even living in remote villages for several days. In Brazil, for example, special low-priced Pampers nighttime diapers that tout absorbency are aimed at families in which babies and toddlers sleep in the same bed with parents, said Pedro Silva, a P&G spokesman in Brazil.

For shoppers, it's clear that consumer products makers are trying to cash in on rising incomes.

"I think there are more cleaning products and personal health products on the market and while they're not always cheaper, there are more sales," said Tatiana Miranda, 32, a travel agent in Rio de Janeiro. "When I see them on sale, I buy a lot and keep a stock."

While Brazil, Russia, India and China get the most attention, there are many smaller nations where economies -- and consumer sales -- are building. P&G now has sales in 160 countries, with business blooming in such places as Indonesia, South Africa and Vietnam.

Size is a big advantage for companies that can diversify global operations and not depend on one country or region, said George Van Horn, a senior analyst for IBISWorld Inc.

"That's certainly one of their safeguards for things that you can't predict; political changes, natural disasters," he said. "They have the capacity and the size to manage through all these ups and downs and keep a five- and 10-year outlook."

P&G's Harrison travels a lot, checking on operations and deciding where the company should build plants to keep supplies close to the new markets. He was recently planning a trip to Lebanon, Egypt and Nigeria.

Among countries he's eyeing as a new location is Kazakhstan. Probably more familiar to many Americans as the homeland of satirist Sasha Baron Cohen's "Borat" character, the former Soviet republic has a growing economy with plentiful oil and more than 15 million people. P&G has already hired some Kazakhs to work elsewhere in eastern Europe, training them to eventually run things back home.

"Over the next four, five, six years, we're going to build 15 or more factories around the world," Harrison said. All but one or two will "go into supporting our emerging businesses. The growth is there and we need to be there."

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Associated Press reporters Michael Astor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.