The Ministry of Finance will sell a special treasury bond to raise money to buy foreign-exchange reserves from the central bank, a finance ministry official said.

"Since it will be a special treasury bond issue, the State Council will decide on the amount and then submit to the National People's Congress for approval," Zhan Jingtao, director of the treasury department of the ministry, said in an interview at a conference in Beijing yesterday.

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China's currency reserves grew at about US$1 million a minute in the first three months of this year to reach US$1.2 trillion, as exports boomed. The government is setting up a State investment company that will use some of the reserves to buy investments with higher yields. The State Investment Co probably will be set up officially before the end of this year.

Zhan yesterday declined to confirm media reports that the finance ministry will sell bonds to buy US$200 billion to US$300 billion of foreign reserves to put into the State Investment Co.

"Detailed amount of the bond sales and how it will be sold is still under discussion," he said, adding that the decision is likely to be made before year-end.

China's foreign-currency reserves may reach US$1.6 trillion by the end of the year and may exceed US$2 trillion in 2008 if current growth keeps up, Fan Gang, a monetary policy committee adviser of the People's Bank of China, said at an economic seminar on June 5.