SHANGHAI, Aug 27 -- A TOP Chinese official said today that an American toy company should face up to its responsibility for the recall of millions of Chinese-made toys, as 85 percent of the unsafe toys had problematic designs.

Mattel Inc, the world's largest toy maker, has recalled almost 20 million Chinese-made toys, including dolls, cars and action figures since August after reports said some items were contaminated with lead paint, while others had small magnets that children might swallow.

"The Chinese toy maker, who had a long history of cooperation with Mattel, has suffered great economic losses and is now under huge pressure," Li Changjiang, head of China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, told a news conference in Beijing this morning. "But what blame should Mattel take for this recall?''

"About 85 percent of these toys were directly designed by the American company and produced according to requirements of the American importer," Li said.

"I personally have seen some of the toys. There are serious problems in their design, so they are highly dangerous for children. These types of toys would be recalled in any country," Li added.

He said that most Chinese-made toys are safe, and the recalled toys only made up a small portion of the 22 billion toys exported from China last year.

Li noted that some of accusations of quality shortcomings in Chinese products were caused by different standards in different countries.

"For some products there are different standards for China and the United States, so there are differences in defining what is a qualified product," he said.

Li admitted there were problems with some Chinese products, such as toothpaste that was found to contain poisonous chemicals, which the government was trying to correct.

He also challenged the accuracy of groups that test the products, which, he said, was another reason for the global recall of millions of Chinese-made toys.

"The products exported from China are up to standards and good in quality, but ... some inspection organizations have applied incorrect data and reached the wrong decision,'' Li said.

"We are communicating with the relevant US organizations to solve the problem."

Li defended Chinese clothing exports to New Zealand at the 90-minute-long press conference. New Zealand launched an urgent investigation last week over reports that Chinese-made children's clothes were found to contain dangerous levels of formaldehyde.

Chinese tests showed the clothing meet Chinese standards , Li said.

He also mentioned China will import 27.21 million kilograms of pork from Smithfield Food Inc, the biggest pork supplier in the United States, by the end of this year, which is the biggest pork deal ever between the two countries.

Smithfield Food was previously blacklisted along with four other US companies by the Chinese government due to clenbuterol-contaminated pork exports to China.

"We suspended pork imports from those five companies after we found the poisonous chemical in their products," Li said. "But we will consider lifting the ban if these companies have improved their products and matched Chinese food safety standards," Li added.

He denied that China's booming export industry has been affected by several recalls of questionable Chinese products in some countries over concerns about food safety.

China's exports increased 27.6 percent in the first half of this year, topping US$546.7 billion in revenue, Li said.

Exports to the United States have climbed by 17.8 percent from January to June while those to the EU jumped 30.2 percent, Li added, indicating that Chinese products still enjoy popularity around the world.

China vowed to adopt tougher measures to guarantee that no substandard food was exported overseas by improving surveillance in all steps of the production process and blacklisting violators, according to a white paper released by the country's Information Office on August 17.