Multiresolution (or wavelet) analysis offers a strictly local basis set for a systematic introduction of new details into Hilbert space operators. Using this tool we have previously developed an expansion method for density matrices. The set of density operators providing a given electron density plays an essential role in density functional theory, in the minimization of energy expectation values with the constraint that the electron density is fixed. In this contribution, using multiresolution analysis, we present an excellent quality density matrix expansion yielding a prescribed electron density, and compare it to other known methods. Due to the strictly local nature of the applied basis functions, our construction has the specific advantage that the resulting density matrix is correlated and N-representable in the infinite resolution limit. As a further consequence of this scheme we can conclude that the deviation of the exact kinetic energy functional from the Weizsacker term is not a necessary consequence of the particle statistics. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.