More than 27,000 lead-tainted toys are to be removed from shop shelves in Italy as part of another global recall of Chinese-made units by US toy giant Mattel.
Barbie-maker Mattel issued a statement on Wednesday saying that seven types of toys on sale in Italy were affected by the "voluntary recall" and that a total of 27,473 items would be withdrawn.
It said the paint on the toys contained "impermissible" levels of lead.
The hazardous toys include miniature cats, dogs and bags that are part of Barbie brand playsets and a Fisher-Price toy goods train belonging to the Geotrax game set.
Barbie dolls themselves are not involved in the scare.
Mattel, which is the world's No.1 toymaker, announced on Tuesday evening that it was recalling almost 850,000 toys worldwide.
Mattel said the toys were shipped between August 2006 and July 2007.
It was Mattel's third worldwide recall in five weeks of potentially hazardous toys manufactured in China.
In mid-August, Mattel ordered some 18.5 million toys to be pulled, 11 million of them in countries outside the States including Italy, where at least 30,000 were removed from stores.
This followed a recall of 1.5 million toys at the start of August.
Mattel said its latest decision followed extensive safety tests on toys and other research carried out in the wake of the previous scares.
It stressed that the Chinese companies involved were subcontracted firms that had used uncertified paint and that they were no longer producing toys for Mattel.
Mattel said that in future, it would ensure that only safe, certified paint was used in the making of its toys.
The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it would be launching a two-month review of toy safety following the Mattel recalls.
Prosecutors in Turin said last week they had placed a Mattel manager under investigation for suspected gross negligence.
The prosecutors have not revealed the name of the American manager concerned but press sources say it could be Mattel Chief Executive Robert Eckert, who represents the multinational from a legal point of view.
The probe, headed by top Turin Prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, was opened immediately after the mid-August recall.
That safety scare was linked to dangerous lead levels in the toy paint and the presence of small magnets in some toy brands which were capable of being dislodged and hence swallowed by children.
SPOTLIGHT ON CHINA, FARMERS RENEW TOMATO WARNING.
The toy recall was a fresh setback for China, which has been hit by a spate of health and safety scares concerning exported products ranging from toothpaste to pet food.
China pledged last month to raise standards in factories and processing plants by the end of the year in a bid to restore confidence in its exports.
Italian farmers on Wednesday sounded a fresh alarm over the growing use of Chinese-produced tomatoes in supposedly Italian products.
Farm organisation Coldiretti said imports of Chinese tomato concentrate had tripled over the past year and would equal 150 million kilos by the end of 2007, a figure which amounted to a quarter of all Italian tomato production.
Coldiretti renewed demands for the compulsory labelling of food products to show the origin of their ingredients, saying that Italian consumers were often unaware that they were buying Chinese tomato products instead of Italian ones.
"If the Mattel scare is followed by a food one, it would be difficult to withdraw affected products because there is no obligation to include origins on the label," it said.
Paste and other tomato products, it said, are one of the bastions of Italian food excellence and "must be defended at all costs".
China sends about half of its tinned tomatoes to Italy, Coldiretti noted.
