Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government has since early this year issued state bonds worth Rp44.6 trillion to meet part of its bond issuance target in the first half of 2010, a Finance Ministry official said.

"This is part of a front loading strategy in the first semester of 2010," the ministry`s director general of debt management, Rahmat Waluyanto, said at a discussion on the 2010 state budget here on Monday.

The bonds consisted of coupon bonds worth Rp13.25 trillion, retail state sharia bonds (sukuk) Rp8.03 trillion, non-coupon bonds Rp3.9 trillion, domestic state sharia bonds Rp0.95 trillion and global bonds Rp18.55 trillion, he said.

The bonds represented 25.4 percent of the target of Rp175.06 trillion state bonds the government would issue in the first semester, he said.

Rahmat said the second issuance of retail state sharia bonds had attracted a total of 17,231 investors as per February 10.

He said the policy of meeting part of financing target in the 2010 state budget would still rely on the issuance of state bonds and the withdrawal of offshore loans but the government would focus on domestic financing sources.

"We will give priority to the issuance of rupiah-denominated state bonds in the domestic market. The more the bonds we will issue the wider the market will be," he said.

Foreign currency loans were complementary to avoid crowd-out with the private sector which also issued bonds, he said adding the issuance of foreign currency bonds consisting of global bonds and sharia bonds was expected to strengthen the country`s foreign exchange reserves.