Wellington, Sept 15 - Chinese officials failed to recall contaminated milk formula linked to the sickness of more than 400 babies and at least one death when asked by dairy giant Fonterra, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday.
Clark said local Chinese officials only acted when her government contacted the Chinese government in Beijing.
Sanlu Group, a milk powder producer 43 percent owned by New Zealand based Fonterra, was ordered to halt production last week after a preliminary investigation found the chemical compound melamine in its powder was causing kidney stones in infants.
Fonterra, which has said it knew of the problem since August, had pressed for a full public recall of all affected products, but had been blocked, Clark said on Monday.
"They have been trying for weeks to get official recall and the local authorities in China would not do it," she told TVNZ.
"At a local level...I think the first inclination was to try and put a towel over it and deal with it without an official recall. That is never what we would do in New Zealand."
Chinese media first reported on Sept. 10 that babies had fallen ill after drinking the formula, and Sanlu on Sept. 11 issued a recall of any product made before Aug 6.
Clark said she was told of the problem on Sept. 5 and three days later New Zealand officials were ordered to bypass local officials and inform the Chinese government.
"As you can imagine when New Zealand government blew the whistle in Beijing a very heavy hand then descended on the local authorities," she said.
Sanlu had begun receiving customer complaints in March that babies' urine was discoloured and that some had been admitted to hospital, officials said.
It had investigated and recalled some products and sealed other contaminated powder, but had not reported to the government "for a considerable time," vice minister of health Gao Qiang said in a briefing on Saturday.
The Hebei provincial government only found out about the problem on Sept. 8, when it was informed by the government of Shijiazhuang, where Sanlu is headquartered, Gao said.
Farmers or dealers supplying milk to Sanlu may have diluted it with water and then added melamine, a substance used in plastics, fertilisers and cleaning products, to make the milk's protein level appear higher than it actually is.
Melamine was linked to deaths and illness of thousands of cats and dogs in the United States last year after it was added to pet food components exported from China.
Normally inert, it can trigger the formation of kidney stones in the presence of cyanuric acid.
In Taiwan, authorities have sealed all Sanlu milk powder products that have yet to be distributed to retailers.