A senior Chinese official said on Thursday that Mattel has admitted full responsibility for design errors leading to the recalls of millions of Chinese toys.

"In a letter to Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, an executive from Mattel admitted that the company took full responsibility for the recalls," said Wei Chuanzhong, vice minister of AQSIQ, referring to the design faults in toys with tiny magnets that could be swallowed.

The company also admitted that there were no conflicts with Chinese manufacturers over the recalls, said Wei at a press conference held in the Chinese embassy in the United States. He added that some 85 percent of the Chinese toys recalled in the past weeks because of design problems.

A Chinese investigation into the latest recall has found that the toys were produced according to Mattel's specifications, he said.

Only 15 percent of the toys targeted in earlier recalls contained excessive amounts of lead, said the Chinese official, noting that several Chinese manufacturers involved in the scandal have been harshly punished.

Two Canadian business professors released a report a few days ago. They also concluded that most of the toys made in China were recalled due to design errors, as opposed to manufacturing problems or the lead paint issue.

The report analyzed Chinese-made toy recalls by going through recalls issued by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission from 1988 to August 2007. Of the 550 toy recalls, 76.4 percent were due to problems that could be attributed to design flaws.

Of the 20 million toys recalled by Mattel in the past month, 80 percent were recalled because they contained small magnets, a design flaw, according to the report.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2007)