Although Chinese dairy products like milk and yoghurt have been long banned from the 27-nation European union, the commission decided that consumers needed more precautions against products containing milk from China.

"We have had to step up our measures in order to be... 100 percent protected," commission spokeswoman Nina Papadoulaki told journalists in Brussels.

The toughest of the measures, which are due to be adopted on Friday, consisted of "an explicit, total ban on all products originating from China for infants and young children containing any percentage of milk," she said.

The measure was intended "to ensure that such products are not imported in any form," Papadoulaki added.

The European Commission also planned to require 100 percent testing of imported Chinese products containing more than 15 percent milk powder, and random testing on such products already on the EU market.

China is battling a tainted milk scandal which has seen 53,000 children sickened and four killed by milk laced with melamine, an industrial chemical normally used to make plastics.

When added to milk, the toxic chemical can make it appear richer in protein.

"As far as we know, there are no contaminated products on the market" in Europe, Papadoulaki said, insisting that "we are taking the measures as a precaution."

The commission decided safeguard measures were necessary after the European Food Safety Authority concluded that there was a very limited contamination risk for the products exported by China to Europe.

Only children who eat highly contaminated milk toffee, chocolate or biscuits with a lot of milk powder were at risk and children with a normal level of consumption would not exceed tolerable daily levels, EFSA said.

"Children who consume both such biscuits and chocolate could potentially exceed the (tolerable daily level) by up to more than three times," the food authority added.

It saw no risk of contamination for adults even in worst case scenarios.

Despite the limited risk of contamination of products consumed in Europe, the scare is fuelling fears and retail giant Tesco said Wednesday it had taken certain Chinese sweets off its shelves due to fears over the scandal.

The European Union has banned Chinese products made entirely of milk since 2002 over concerns of insufficient controls in the industry there.

Despite the ban, the European Commission has asked EU nations to be on the lookout for any Chinese milk products entering the bloc, calling on member states to boost border controls.

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