House prices in the UK slipped back slightly in February following a massive surge the previous month, the country's largest building society revealed today. In its monthly survey of the sector, the Nationwide said house prices fell 0.2 pct from the previous month, compared with January's 1.5 pct rise and expectations of a more modest 0.2 pct increase. On a year-on-year basis, house prices were 3.7 pct higher, down on January's 4.4 pct and expectations of 4.2 pct. The average house price now stands at 158,573 stg. Despite February's decline, Nationwide said the trend over last six months was still strong, making another interest rate cut from the Bank of England's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee less likely in the short term· "The continued rise of our three-month average since October 2005 still shows strength in the market and, significantly, this discouraged the MPC from cutting interest rates in February," said Greg Fuzesi, Nationwide's senior economist. However, he noted that buyers traditionally return to the market in the spring but weak economic factors make this look less likely this year. Fuzesi said the coming months will be crucial to see if Februarys fall is just a pause before the spring rush or the first sign of weak market fundamentals weighing down on prices. "We expect the weaker economic factors to begin to dominate over the next 2-3 months and to prevent strong house price rises in 2006," he added.