By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Calling 20,000 deaths a year from influenza unacceptable, the U.S. government on Wednesday launched a new program to ensure that older Americans, especially blacks and Hispanics, get vaccinated.

The program aims to build on the success in the early 1990s that eliminated a resurgence of measles among U.S. children and which has resulted in nearly 90 percent of school-age children having been vaccinated against measles.

"We know immunizations work, yet still far too many Americans -- especially Hispanics and African Americans -- are not getting the shots that can prevent pneumonia and flu," Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Claude Allen told a news conference.

"This initiative will help us identify the most effective ways to increase immunization rates in minority populations."

The program -- the Racial and Ethnic Adult Disparities in Immunization Initiative or READII -- will look for local bodies that can help persuade older Americans to get vaccinated against flu and pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia and other potentially deadly infections.

These will include large health plans, insurers, health care providers, professional organizations, churches, community groups and civic leaders. Five areas are included -- Rochester, New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Texas, and rural counties in Mississippi.

The new initiative was announced as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its annual report on how many Americans have been immunized.

It finds 77 percent of children between the ages of 19 months and 3 years have received all the basic immunizations they are supposed to get, including polio, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae and pneumococcal disease.

The CDC and HHS want to improve this number, too and note wide geographical differences. Children in the Northeast, upper Midwest and Southeast are the most likely to have been fully vaccinated, with the lowest numbers in the West, including Texas, and some mid-Atlantic states and Washington, D.C.

Despite the less-than-perfect coverage, the CDC says only 19 cases of rubella or German measles were reported last year, 27 cases of tetanus and 108 cases of measles.

So the agencies also want to take on older Americans, who they say are dying in unwarranted numbers every flu season.

The CDC report finds that in 2000, 67 percent of whites over 65 got their flu vaccine, compared to only 48 percent of blacks and 56 percent of Hispanics. Only 57 percent of whites had the pneumococcal vaccine and just 31 percent of African-Americans and 30 of Hispanics.

Flu and pneumococcal disease are the fifth leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65, Allen said.