* Three-year sale is part of record $81 bln Nov refunding

* Wall Street rally pares a safe-haven bid for bonds

* Fed Gov. Tarullo to speak about financial regulations (Updates market action, adds new quote)

By Richard Leong

NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices were steady to modestly higher on Monday before a $40 billion auction of three-year notes, part of this week's record $81 billion November refunding.

A combination of short-covering and buying of longer-dated debt pushed up bond prices amid expectations the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates near zero well into 2010, analysts said. For more, see [ID:nNAT007158]

The market's rise was mitigated by a rally on Wall Street in the wake of a pledge by the Group of 20 industrialized nations over the weekend to stick to measures to bolster the global economy. For the latest on U.S. stocks, see [.N]

"The market assumes the Fed's punch bowl will be on the table for awhile. It thinks a lot of liquidity will still be around," said Mark Pawlak, market strategist at Keefe Bruyette & Woods in New York.

Analysts predict solid demand for the three-year supply as investors could earn an extra 0.50 percentage point in yield than on two-year notes US2YT=RR in exchange for taking slightly more interest rate risk.