Bangladesh's exports of denim garments to the United States in the first nine months of 2005 surged from a year earlier after global textile quotas were dropped at the start of that year, officials said on Wednesday.

They said exports of denim apparel, including trousers and jackets, were 144 percent higher in value and 134 percent bigger in volume in the January-to-September period compared with a year earlier.

Exporters shipped about 561,000 dozen denim trousers to the United States in that period, against 240,000 dozen a year earlier. Earnings reached $44 million from a year-earlier $18 million.

The officials from the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said they were quoting data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"We are enjoying an export boom in the U.S. market in the quota-free era that has opened up a whole new world of trade to us," said Anisul Haque, a member of the BGMEA board and a former president of the group.

The United States is Bangladesh's single biggest export market, where it has a 1.95 percent share of the denim market.

Readymade garments, Bangladesh's biggest export, fetched $6.42 billion in the fiscal year to the end of June 2005.