They were net sellers of short-term Treasury bills, so their total Treasury holdings grew by just $290.9 billion.

The monetary base is the sum of all coin, paper dollars and Federal Reserve Deposits - Treasury holdings.

The largest increase came in Britain, where Treasury holdings rose $16.9 billion, to $152.5 billion.

Since President Bush took office, they have added to their Treasury holdings at a pace of nearly half a billion dollars a day.

But its Treasury holdings, American filings show, climbed by only $16.4 billion.

It holds about $69 billion in United States Treasury securities, or 4 percent of the total foreign Treasury holdings.

Treasury prices fell yesterday, weighed down by concerns about new supply coming to market and speculation about hedge funds liquidating some of their Treasury holdings.

Another supply of money coming into stocks is from investors selling Treasury holdings in recent days.

Many traders and investors had thought that Drexel's Treasury holdings had already been distributed and absorbed by the market.

Indeed, it turns out that the Bank of Japan has been quietly selling some Treasury holdings for days, causing barely a stir.