WASHINGTON - HOME furnishing company IKEA agreed to pay a US$500,000 (S$763,304) fine for being slow to report defective outdoor candles, the government said on Sunday.

In May 2006, IKEA recalled 133,000 packages of outdoor candles in the United States. The company had received at least 32 reports of problems with these candles worldwide, including 12 reports of injuries.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said IKEA did not promptly report the problems, as the law requires.

The candles were available at IKEA stores around the country between February 2001 and July 2005.

In the settlement agreement with the agency, IKEA North America Services denied that it knowingly broke the law.

This fine comes on the heels of the company's Thursday recall of 670,000 blinds in the United States. The window dressings were recalled after a 1-year-old girl died when she got caught in the inner cord of a set of IKEA Roman blinds over her playpen.

A telephone message left on Sunday for spokesman at IKEA USA offices in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, was not immediately returned. -- AP