(Adds record for delinquencies, company comment)

By Al Yoon

NEW YORK, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Freddie Mac (FRE.P: Quote, Profile, Research), the second largest provider of funding for U.S. residential mortgages, on Wednesday said delinquencies on loans it guarantees accelerated to a record high in January as it suspended foreclosures.

Total delinquencies jumped 0.26 percentage points last month to 1.98 percent, nearly three times that of a year earlier, according to data on the company's Web site.

Losses related to the company's mortgage bond guarantee business and on securities packaged and sold by Wall Street firms are forcing the company to seek capital from the government under an agreement arranged in September.

Freddie Mac said last month it expected fourth quarter losses may force it to draw up to $35 billion from the Treasury to maintain a positive net worth.

Rising delinquencies have come as the company set a temporary suspension of foreclosures to give mortgage servicers more time to provide new payment plans or loans for troubled homeowners. The number rises as mortgages stay delinquent longer, instead of falling out of the data as loans are reworked or homes are foreclosed.

Higher delinquencies mean the company will increase provisions for losses, said Michael Cosgrove, a company spokesman. Provisions will be updated when the company files its 2008 annual results with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he said. A date has not been set, he added.

Delinquency rates could rise further on additional foreclosure suspensions in 2009, it said.