WASHINGTON, May 16 (Xinhua) -- China, the top buyer of U.S. Treasury securities, cut its holding in March, the latest data from the U.S. Treasury Department showed on Monday.

China reduced its holding of the treasuries by 7.7 billion U.S. dollars to 1.2446 trillion U.S. dollars in March, following an increase of 14.4 billion U.S. dollars in February.

Japan, the second largest foreign holder of U.S. treasuries, increased its holding by 4 billion dollars to 1.1371 trillion dollars in March.

In March, overall foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities rose to 6.287 trillion U.S. dollars from February' s 6.2362 trillion dollars.