Honda Motor will recall 528,406 Chinese-made cars, a record for China's fledgling auto industry, to fix faulty power steering pipes and pumps and fuel pump relays, the carmaker's venture in south China was reported to have said on Friday.

According to Reuters, price wars in the world's second-largest vehicle market have taken a toll on the quality of vehicles, with more than 350,000 units recalled last year, according to calculations from recalls announced last year.

The report added that many foreign players operating in the country were involved in last year's recalls, including PSA/Peugeot, Citroen, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

Bloomberg News cited Guangzhou Honda as saying it would repair faulty power-steering pipes on 419,613 Accord sedans produced between 7 January, 2003, and 21 December, 2006.

The automaker also recalled 68,993 Odysseys produced between 22 February, 2005, and 14 February this year because of faulty bolts on the cars' power-steering pumps.

A total of 39,800 Accords, Odysseys and Fits made between 1 August, 2005, and 30 September, 2005, were also recalled because glue may have leaked into fuel-pump relays. Honda dealers will offer free repairs from March 19, Bloomberg noted.

Left-hand drive Jazz models are exported from China to some European markets. A Honda executive was reported recently as saying that consumers could not detect any quality differences between the Chinese cars and Hondas built in Japan.

A Honda UK spokesman told just-auto that a number of vehicles covered by the fuel pump relay recall are in the European Union  - a total of 13,493 2005 model year Accord, FR-V and Jazz models, none of which are came to the UK.

He said the number of affected cars was likely to be very small but dealers would have to check each one to see if a particular supplier's relay was fitted and change it.

China's FAW Car has reported net profit for 2006 up 2.9% year on year after cutting prices to meet increased competition.

The growth rate was down from 8% in 2005, Reuters said .FAW net profit for the year ended 31 December, 2006, was $US44.88m (347.40m yuan), up from 337.62m yuan the year before.

Revenue for 2006 fell 3.6% to $US1.29bn (9.96bn yuan), in unaudited results compiled under domestic accounting standards. Reuters noted that the company will release final results on 30 April.

FAW is a unit of one of China's three largest automakers, First Automotive Works, and makes the Red Flag cars favoured by Communist Party cadres as well as the MAzda 6 sedan.