HONG KONG - MORE toys made in China now need export licences as the world's biggest manufacturer of the children's products moves to boost quality, an official said on Wednesday following safety scares last year.

Seven new product types need the licences, which will have to be renewed every three rather than the previous five years, said Li Qingxiang, the deputy director general of Guangdong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

'All the new toys will have to be inspected for safety and to make sure they reach the required standard before they can be produced and exported,' he said.

Toy manufacturers believed the new measures, introduced in phases since June 2006, would raise quality levels, he told reporters on the sidelines of Hong Kong's Toys and Games Fair, the world's second-largest toy exhibition.

Last year's scares included US giant Mattel's recall of 18 million toys over concerns about toxic lead paint and magnets that could cause children to choke, tarnishing China's toy industry and creating international pressure for change.

Carter Keithley, the president of the Toy Industry Association in the US, welcomed the export licence move, saying he believed the Chinese authorities genuinely wanted to tackle problems.

'We think that the Chinese authorities have taken this very seriously,' he said. 'They have undertaken very realistic and firm steps to try and assure toy manufacturers in China are capable manufactures.'

China is the world's top toy exporter, selling 22 billion toys overseas in 2006, or 60 per cent of the globe's total.

It exported toys worth US$7.1 billion (S$10 billion) in the first 10 months of 2007, up some 20 per cent on a year earlier.

The Toys and Games Fair runs until Thursday and features more than 2,000 exhibitors, 29,000 foreign buyers and major retailers such as Britain's Hamleys and Mattel and Toy 'R' Us from the United States. -- AFP