Malaysia's trade surplus in February fell 15.9 percent to RM7.42 billion (US$2.0 billion) from a revised surplus of RM8.82 billion in January, the government said.

The February figure was up 3.5 percent from a year earlier and marked the 100th consecutive monthly surplus since November 1997, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) said in a statement.

Exports in February fell 2.1 percent month-on-month to RM42.27 bilion but were up 15.1 percent from a year earlier, it said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the United States, the European Union, Japan, China and Hong Kong were the country's major export markets, taking 79.7 percent of Malaysia's total exports in February.

Miti said that for the first two months of 2006, total exports stood at RM85.43 billion, with imports at RM69.19 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of RM16.24 billion.