BEIJING - THE US Food and Drug Administration opened its first offices outside the United States here on Wednesday as part of plans to accept increasing amounts of Chinese imports despite recent safety scandals.

The three offices are part of efforts to ensure food and drug imports from China meet US standards, with similar set-ups planned for elsewhere around the world, FDA officials said at the opening of the Beijing branch.

'A permanent FDA presence in China will help us address the challenges presented by globalisation,' FDA commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach told journalists.

'We look forward to working with the Chinese government and manufacturers to ensure that FDA standards for safety and manufacturing quality are met before products ship to the United States.'

China is currently in the midst of a huge tainted milk scandal that saw four babies die and 53,000 others fall ill this year after they ingested dairy products laced with the industrial chemical melamine.

The melamine was mixed into the milk to give dairy products the appearance of higher protein levels.

US authorities last week issued a nationwide 'import alert' for Chinese-made food products for possible melamine contamination and warned against consuming several products from China including infant formula.

However FDA food commissioner David Acheson said the United States would continue to import food from China, and that trend is 'going to be increasing'.

As part of the joint co-operation between the two sides to ensure safe imports, China will also send food and quality control officials to the United States, Chinese officials said on Tuesday.

Following the office openings in the three Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the FDA will establish a similar presence in the coming months in India, Latin America and in Europe, von Eschenbach said.

The United States imports food from more than 200,000 foreign manufacturers in over 150 different countries, making up about 15 per cent of the total amount Americans eat. -- AFP