-->From Reuters
Thursday, October 7, 2004

http://www.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?
duid=mtfh67727_2004-10-07_20-30-18_nat001004_newsml

NEW YORK -- Foreign central banks became sellers
of U.S. Treasuries in the latest week, cutting into
the annual pace of their accumulation of U.S. debt,
the Federal Reserve reported on Thursday.

The Fed said its overall holdings of Treasury and
agency debt kept for overseas central banks fell
$2.107 billion to $1.289 trillion in the week ending
Oct. 6. Total custody holdings are still up $216
billion for the year-to-date, though the pace of gains
has slowed notably in recent weeks.

The breakdown of custody holdings showed overseas
central banks sold a net $3.878 billion of Treasuries.
Offshore central banks hold $1.045 trillion of
Treasuries, or around 29 percent of the entire U.S.
government debt held in public hands.

In contrast, overseas central banks bought $1.771
billion of agency debt.