The world's biggest toymaker, Mattel, has announced its third major recall of Chinese-made products in a month.

About three-quarters of a million toys are being recalled because they are decorated with paint containing too much lead, the US company said.

They include Barbie doll accessories and toy trains.

Mattel chairman Bob Eckert apologised again, but stressed the faults had come to light because the company had recently introduced enhanced testing.

'You have my promise that if we find any other issues, we'll continue to do the right thing, we'll let you know about it,' Eckert said in a message posted on the company's website.

In the last month it has recalled 18 million China-made toys - because their paint was found to contain lead.

Parents were also urged to return other items which had small magnets that may come loose.

In the past week, US branches of the retailer Toys R Us have recalled 27,000 Chinese-made paint and crayon sets after the wooden box packaging was found to contain lead.

A fortnight ago, about 300,000 items were recalled by US retailers including SpongeBob SquarePants spiral address books. and diaries, Thomas the Tank Engine spinning tops and some toy buckets sold in the US.

China has not commented on the latest recall but it earlier pointed out that of the billions of goods it produces every year, only a fraction are found to be faulty.

Beijing was quick to act after the first Mattel recall, revoking the licence to manufacture goods at a firm in Guangdong province.

The first two Mattel recalls included Chinese-made Sarge die-cast toys from the Pixar film Cars, as well as some toys including Polly Pocket, which contained small magnets that could come loose.

That recall prompted a US senator to call for all toys imported into the country from China to be inspected.