Tokyo - Japan's foreign exchange reserves dropped 1.6 billion dollars in February after the US Treasury bond prices and the appraisal value of the nation's euro-dominated assets fell, the Finance Ministry said Friday.

The nation's foreign reserves fell for the second month in a row but remained barely above the 1-trillion-dollar level with 1.0093 trillion dollars.

As of the end of February, Japan held 892.34 billion dollars in foreign securities, while foreign currency deposits came to 87.81 billion dollars.

The nation had 6.35 billion dollars of the deposits in foreign central banks and the Basle, Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements, 21.07 billion dollars in Japanese banks and 60.38 billion dollars in foreign financial institutions.

Gold reserves came to 23.42 billion dollars.

Japan had 2.53 billion dollars in IMF reserve positions and 2.9 billion dollars in International Monetary Fund special drawing rights. Other reserve assets came to 357 million dollars.

Japan's foreign exchange reserves consist mainly of securities and deposits denominated in foreign currencies, gold, and reserve positions and special drawing rights with the IMF.

China was the world's largest holder of foreign reserves as of the end of April, followed by Japan, Russia, India and Taiwan. (dpa)