Some countries are using product quality as a pretense to block Chinese exports, Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said yesterday.

China strongly opposes this form of trade protection, Li, a delegate to the Party's national congress in Beijing, told reporters.

"It not only affects China, but benefits no other country," he said.

Li urged overseas companies to organize toy imports from China as early as possible to make sure children in their countries can enjoy reasonably priced toys for Christmas.

In an obvious allusion to the United States, Li said: "I have heard the prices of Barbie Dolls in the American market have risen 10 percent. That's the result of market forces when demand exceeds supply. Restrictions on Chinese products are not conducive to either the local market or the people."

China, the world's biggest toy maker, controls nearly 60 percent of the global toy trade.

It has come under the spotlight amid a spate of toy recalls - the most recent by the US toy maker Mattel, which this summer announced three separate recalls of China-made toys.

Li said Mattel later admitted that 87 percent of the recalls were the result of loose magnets - actually a design defect by Mattel itself.

Only 13 percent were toys found to contain excessive lead, but the recalls have left questions over the quality of China-made toys, Li said.

To remove the worries from abroad, the administration has organized several factory tours for foreign media to south China's Guangdong Province.

In one company which employs about 40,000 people, Li said he was told the company's business was barely affected and orders were not dwindling.

"That's evidence of the credibility of 'Made in China,' because a majority of China's toy exports are up to standard," he said.

This month, one deputy director of the administration will go to the US to consult the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration on a memorandum of understanding to expand cooperation on product safety.

Apart from calling for international cooperation, the Chinese government has made a massive product quality check at home, revoking the export licenses of more than 100 companies.

In the latest efforts, more than 1,000 people from China's toy-making industry attended government-sponsored training courses in Guangdong this week.

Government officials and executives of transnational firms were invited to give lectures on toy certificate systems, and export test regulations and standards in China, the US and Europe.