The Chinese Ministry of Finance said Tuesday that it would issue 6 billion yuan worth of government bonds in Hong Kong, a major step to internationalize its currency at a time of concern about the dollar.

The yuan bond issue, worth about $879 million, will &S220;promote the RMB in neighboring countries,&S221; the Finance Ministry said on its Web site &S212; referring to the overall name of the Chinese currency, the renminbi &S212; &S220;and improve the yuan&S217;s international status.&S221;

&S220;The first step toward internationalization is regionalization,&S221; Shi Lei, a foreign currency analyst at Bank of China in Beijing, said in an interview. &S220;China wants to develop the offshore market in Hong Kong.&S221;

While domestic banks like Bank of China and the Export-Import Bank of China have issued yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong for a couple of years at the encouragement of Beijing, this is the first time that government bonds, the equivalent of U.S. Treasury securities, are to be issued. The sale is set for Sept. 28.

In July, the People&S217;s Bank of China started a program for local companies to settle trade in yuan, but it has so far spurred little trade.

Zhi Ming Zhang, an analyst at HSBC in Hong Kong, said the government bond issue might show foreign investors they could rely on the yuan.

&S220;If I&S217;m doing trade with China, where am I going to park this money?&S221; Mr. Zhi asked, referring to the yuan. The yuan-bond market needs security and liquidity to make such settlements attractive, he said, and government bonds will provide some security as well as a pricing benchmark instant payday loans.

Experts estimate that China holds about 75 percent of its $2 trillion in foreign reserves in dollar-denominated assets, but since the global financial crisis, that position has made Beijing uneasy. Since the beginning of 2007, the dollar has slipped more than 20 percent against the yen, and more than 12 percent against the yuan, and investors are concerned as the United States continues to pile up debt to finance its massive stimulus package.

In March, China&S217;s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, expressed concern about the dollar&S217;s slide and encouraged the United States to ensure its stability.

While the bond issue announced Tuesday is a step toward making the yuan a global currency, the size of the sale is small compared with those of bonds like Treasury securities, and the time it will take to establish the yuan internationally remains uncertain.

&S220;There is no timetable,&S221; said Mr. Shi, the Bank of China analyst, adding that developing the market would take &S220;at least three to five years.&S221;

In another move to make the yuan accessible to investors, BOC Suisse Fund Management, Bank of China&S217;s asset-management arm based in Geneva, said Friday that it had received approval from the Swiss financial regulator to create a new set of funds, nearly half of them denominated in the Chinese currency.

China to Issue Yuan-Denominated Bonds in Hong Kong