Fisher-Price is recalling tens of thousands of toys sold in the UK amid concerns over excessive levels of lead in their paint.

The products form part of a global withdrawal of 1.5 million Chinese-made plastic pre-school toys over safety fears - the latest in a deluge of product safety scares that have tainted the “made in China” label.

Fisher-Price's parent company, Mattel, said that no injuries had occurred as a result of the sales, but urged parents to stop children using the affected toys immediately.

The move follows the discovery of problems with a number of character-based products marketed for children as young as two years old. Included in the recall are popular Dora, Diego and Lazy Town character-based products aimed at the pre-school market.

Mattel is asking US consumers and sellers to return 967,000 plastic toys and is recalling another 533,000 from other countries, including Britain, Canada and Mexico.

In all, more than 94,000 units of the toys have gone on sale in stores across the UK and Ireland. The toys were sold in the UK between May and August this year.

The move will come as an embarrassment for Mattel, which has previously prided itself on its strict quality controls.It could also heighten concerns over the safety of Chinese-made goods.

Mattel said a “thorough investigation” was now under way into how the products made their way on to the shelves.

In a statement, Mattel UK said: “The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a release recalling a number of Fisher-Price licence character toys. 94,305 units of these products have been sold in the UK and Ireland. The toys were available from May 2007 to August 2007.

“If customers have any of these products they should stop using them immediately, contact the Fisher Price UK helpline on 01628 500303 or email helplineuk@mattel.com.

“We will arrange for the return of the item and replacement toy of equivalent value. There have been no injuries regarding these products but the surface paint of toys concerned contain excessive levels of lead.”

Lead paint has been linked to various health problems in children, including brain damage.

Mattel’s senior vice president of worldwide quality assurance, Jim Walter, said that the recall could hit all its markets and traced the problem to a single manufacturer.

“The disappointment here was we had a single contract manufacturer that we had a long-standing relationship with, who did not do what is required by Mattel,” Mr Walter said.

Previous safety problems with Chinese products have involved smaller manufacturers - not large companies in such a senstive sector as toys.

“Nobody wants to face that PR nightmare,” said Kent Kedl, the Shanghai head of Technomic Asia, which advises companies sourcing out of China.“But the reality is that things slip through the cracks. And the cracks are a little bit bigger here in China.”

President Bush has ordered a review of US rules intended to keep out harmful imports following a series of scares involving Chinese goods this year.

The United States has stepped up inspections of goods from China after a chemical additive in pet food caused the death of some pets. Toxic ingredients were also found in Chinese fish and toothpaste exports, while the deaths of patients in Panama were blamed on improperly labelled Chinese chemicals mixed into cough syrup.

Chinese-made toy trains were recalled in the United States in June because some may have contained lead paint.

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