BOJ gov nixes Maehara talk of foreign bond buying

Japanese Economics Minister Seiji Maehara said on Monday that buying foreign bonds could be one way for the central bank to pump money into markets and expand the country's monetary base.

But Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the central bank has plenty of other assets it can buy to offer liquidity to markets.

"We don't see the need to buy foreign bonds for the purpose of pumping liquidity," he told a lower house budget committee meeting.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Michael Watson)