She claimed Ferdinand Marcos accumulated 1,000 tonnes of gold while a guerrilla fighting Japanese occupation forces in the 1940s and increased it to 4,000 tonnes by taking advantage of the steep increase in international gold prices in the 1970s. Marcos had claimed to have found the gold treasure amassed by Japanese Imperial Army General Tomoyuki Yamashita during a lightning conquest of Southeast Asia during World War II, but the size has not been disclosed.

He used the money to build roads, bridges, irrigation systems and schools in the Philippines during his 20-year rule, having inherited empty coffers from his predecessor, Imelda Marcos said.

Herclaims have elicited reactions of mostly disbelief. Central Bank of the Philippines Gabriel Singson, a career banker since 1955, said it was ``unbelievable'' for a person to own 4,000 tonnes of gold. Asked whether the Government should try to verify Marcos's alleged international gold transactions, Singson said: ``We will just become the laughing stock of the world.'' Andy Smith, an expert with Mitsui Bussan Commodities in London, said the figures ticked off by Imelda seemed ``totally unreal''. Such a volume is more than half of the gold kept by the American Federal Reserve Bank in Fort Knox and is higher than the reserves of the German central bank, Bundesbank, totalling only 3,700 tonnes, he said.

The Swiss National Bank has only 2,600 tonnes. Also, the 4,000 tonnes of gold is about the entire production of South Africa, one of the largest gold producers, in 10 years, Smith added. He said that at the current market rate, the gold would be worth $38 billion.

Congresswoman Imee Marcos, Imelda's eldestdaughter, said in a television interview she and her siblings were surprised at their mother's revelations. ``We love her dearly, but sometimes she goes wild and crazy and it's very exciting to watch, but let's see,'' she said.

Marcos opponents and victims of torture under his martial law regime said her disclosure was aimed at justifying the plunder of the nation's coffers during his rule, ended by a popular uprising in 1986. The dictator died in exile in Hawaii in 1989.

``She has publicly announced, nay confessed, to the grand larceny committed by and under the Marcos dictatorship,'' said former solicitor general Francisco Chavez. In remarks last week, Imelda Marcos said she would file legal suits to recover her husband's assets, worth at least $12.8 million in blue chip firms entrusted to cronies who claimed them as their own.