Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp is doubling a recall of potentially deadly air bags to nearly 34 million vehicles, making it the largest automotive recall in American history, US safety regulators said on Tuesday.

The recall involves passenger and driver-side air bag inflators in vehicles made by 11 automakers, the US Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Takata said. It expands on the 16.6 million vehicles called back for repairs for the same issue in previous regional and national recalls, and boosts the number of vehicles affected globally since 2008 to more than 53 million.

Regulators on Tuesday linked six deaths worldwide to defective Takata air bags which exploded too violently and shot shrapnel into the vehicles.

Takata CEO Shigehisa Takada said in a statement: "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with NHTSA, which represents a clear path forward." The company declined to say whether markets outside the United States would be affected.

It was only under pressure from US regulators that Takata agreed to the expanded recall. It had previously resisted expanding the recalls, saying the defect cited by automakers was not "officially recognised."

Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co had expanded their Takata recalls over the past week.

The automakers have said they decided to proceed with their recalls after finding some Takata air bag inflators were not sealed properly, allowing moisture to seep in to the propellant casing. Moisture damages the propellant and can lead to an inflator exploding with too much force.

The six deaths linked to the defective air bags have all been in cars made by Honda, which has borne the brunt of the Takata recalls to date. Honda gave a disappointing profit forecast last month due to higher costs related to quality fixes. - Reuters