Foreign central bank US Treasury holdings up - Fed

NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Foreign central banks' holdings of U.S. Treasuries rose in the latest week but the increase was outweighed by a drop in their agency debt at the Federal Reserve, data from the U.S. central bank showed on Thursday.

The combined holdings of Treasuries and agency securities by foreign central banks at the Fed fell $1.15 billion to a total of $2.948 trillion in the week ended Feb. 3.

Treasuries held by overseas central banks at the Fed rose $4.15 billion to total $2.184 trillion.

Foreign central banks' holdings of securities issued or guaranteed by the two biggest U.S. mortgage financing agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, fell by $5.3 billion to $763.97 billion in the latest week.

Overseas central banks, particularly in Asia, have been huge buyers of U.S. debt in recent years and own more than a quarter of marketable Treasuries. China is the biggest such buyer, followed by Japan.

The full Fed report can be found on: http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/

(Reporting by Burton Frierson; Editing by James Dalgleish) Keywords: USA FED/FOREIGNERS ([e-mail];[phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.