Foreign purchasers of US Treasury securities increased their holdings in May to another record high, the government reported Wednesday. The Treasury Department said total foreign holdings of U.S. debt rose 0.3 percent to $5.98 trillion, up from $5.96 trillion the previous month. China, the biggest buyer of U.S. debt, increased its holdings for the first time since January, raising them by 0.6 percent to $1.27 trillion. Japan, the second-biggest foreign buyer, increased its holdings by 0.9 percent to $1.22 trillion. Russia reduced its Treasury holdings by 4.3 percent to $111.4 billion and well below the recent high of $149.9 billion last October. Foreign demand for U.S. debt is expected to remain strong this year, helped by a congressional agreement to avoid politicizing the U.S. debt limit until March 2015.