BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhuanet)-- For the second time in six months Hewlett Packard (HP) has issued a worldwide recall on Thursday for 15,700 laptop China-made batteries which can pose potential fire hazard because of overheating.

    HP has received 20 reports of batteries overheating, including two in the U.S., with one report of a minor burn injury, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

    The recall is for lithium ion rechargeable batteries manufactured in early January 2005 and used with various HP and Compaq computers. The affected batteries have a bar code label starting with L3, the agency said.

    The batteries were manufactured in China, and the computers were sold in the U.S. at retail and online stores from January 2005 to December 2005 for between 1,000 dollars and 3,000 dollars.

    According to HP, the problems are limited to just the batteries and users can still use their notebooks on AC power until their replacement batteries arrive. However, the second recall in such a short space of time must throw open to question HP's quality control and supply chain procedures.

    In October 2005, HP issued a similar recall for over 130,000 batteries used in similar model laptops.

    HP, a company originally known for its high quality engineering, now sells a range of personal computers, partially inherited from its acquisition of Compaq, most of which are manufactured at low cost locations around the world using low cost parts. Enditem

    (Agencies)