Fannie Mae will sell $10 billion in mortgages.

The mortgages will be packaged and sold as securities through public sales, private placements and auctions, the Federal National Mortgage Assn. said. The government-sponsored company said the sale will go a long way toward ridding it of its portfolio of long-term, low-yielding assets. Nearly all of the loans being sold are government-backed mortgages that Fannie Mae bought before 1981. Declining interest rates have made these mortgages more salable, Fannie Mae said.