Washington: Despite the outcry over outsourcing of jobs to India and other developing countries, the latest US Government data suggest that foreigners outsource far more office work to the country than American companies abroad.

The value of US exports of legal work, computer programming, telecommunications, banking, engineering, management consulting and other private services jumped to $131.01 billion in 2003, up $8.42 billion from the previous year, the Commerce Department reported.

Imports of such private services a category that encompasses US outsourcing of call centres and data entry to developing nations, among other things was $77.38 billion for the year, up 7.94 billion from 2002.

Measuring imports against exports, the US posted a $53.64 billion surplus last year in trade in private services with the rest of the world.

Under Government accounting, when a US company opens a technical support centre in India and handles inquiries from the US, that is considered a US import of services.

When a US lawyer in New York does work for a German auto company or a New York investment banker works on a deal for a Japanese company that is an export of services. 'The Wall Street Journal' said, "The numbers suggest that the Congressional efforts to restrict outsourcing by US companies may backfire if they provoke retaliation by US trading partners.