LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will become the first Western government to issue an offshore bond in Chinese yuan, Finance Minister George Osborne said on Friday.

"I can now announce that the UK government intends to be the first national government outside of China to issue a bond in China's currency," said Mr Osborne, speaking at a meeting in London with Chinese Vice-Premier Ma Kai.

"We have issued bonds in US dollars before. Now we will issue a bond in renminbi."

The bond - which would be similar in size to a 2 billion yuan bond issued in London by China Development Bank - is expected to be issued before the end of the year and will be used to finance the government's reserves of foreign currency, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.