Washington: US legislators unveiled plans for stiffer laws to regulate made-in-China toys after Halloween "treat" buckets and costume teeth became the latest tainted products from the Asian nation to be taken off American store shelves.

The Democratic-controlled Congress expects to introduce a wide-ranging toy and child product safety legislation in the "next few days," said Bobby Rush, the head of a House of Representatives panel on commerce, trade and consumer protection.

"We are in intense negotiations as we speak" to forge the Comprehensive Consumer Product Safety Bill, he told a news conference at Capitol Hill, where tainted China-made toys recalled in the run up to Halloween were prominently displayed. The proposed legislation will ban lead from children's products and paint, require mandatory testing of such products by independent third-party laboratories and ban unsafe and untested imported products, congressional aides said.

One Democratic lawmaker, Rosa DeLauro, has proposed quadrupling penalties from US $ 250,000 to US $ 100 million on companies linked to tainted products.

The legislative move came as a survey released yesterday said US voters greatest concern about China by far was that "lack of safety regulations make Chinese products cheap but also unsafe for American consumers." "Of course, the biggest worry is the unsafe toys with lead paint and the pet food, all mentioned with great frequency," said Democracy Corps, an independent polling group that conducted the survey.

Source : PTI