More than half of all dangerous products detected last year by EU authorities originated in China, with notifications for some 700 goods, according to the European Union's executive arm.

With 80 percent of all toys sold in the EU made in China, toys were the product most often found to pose a serious risk, the commission said in an annual report on its so-called RAPEX system for detecting risky goods.

The commission put the poor safety record of Chinese goods down to the sheer number of imports from the country and the fact that European authorities have ramped up monitoring after waves of recalls of Chinese-made toys last year.

EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said pressure on China to clean up its act, which included a threat of banning dangerous goods, had borne fruit although Beijing needed to take further action.

"While we have made real progress with China, there is a lot more to be done," she told journalists in Brussels.

"I believe that the Chinese government has realized the importance of product safety and of protecting the 'made in China' brand," she said.

"I believe our current cooperation with China has yielded encouraging results."

Tens of millions of Chinese-made toys were recalled in 2007 in what flared up into a new flash point in trade relations between the new economic giant and Europe and the United States.

The world's largest toy maker, US company Mattel, recalled millions of Chinese-made toys deemed to be unsafe although it later admitted that many of the problems were due to design, rather than manufacturing, flaws.

Last September, the commission raised the prospect of introducing bans if Chinese authorities failed to provide sufficient evidence that they were cracking down on the problem.

In November, the commission backed down from that threat after finding that Beijing had made "considerable progress" in tackling the problem and European authorities had tightened their controls.

"The summer of recalls prompted a winter of evaluations which has paved the way for a spring and summer of change," Kuneva said.

"More and more products are being detected and destroyed before they can harm EU consumers," she added. "Public authorities are clearly stepping up to their responsibilities when it comes to consumer protection."

Kuneva is to visit China in June to review the efforts on cracking down on dangerous goods and look into ways of further improving cooperation with Europe.

Overall, the number of risky goods detected in European markets last year rose 53 percent from 2006, with 1,605 products deemed to pose a danger to consumers last year after 1,051 in 2006.

After toys, motor vehicles and electrical appliances accounted for the products most notified as dangerous.

The commission attributed the overall increase in notified risky products to better product safety enforcement at the national level, greater awareness amongst businesses of their obligations and improved cooperation with third countries.

The BEUC European consumers association welcomed the report's findings but also urged authorities to do even more to crack down on dangerous products.

"We will only be satisfied when the laws are stricter and make manufacturers genuinely responsible for the products they put on the market," BEUC director general Monique Goyens said.

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