In a surprising move, U.S. toy manufacturer Mattel apologized to China on Friday, taking responsibility for recent toy recalls and admitting they were due to "design flaws."

The Chinese manufacturers of the toys were not to blame for the massive recalls, a senior Mattel executive said during talks in Beijing.

"The vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers," Debrowski said at a meeting in the office of Li Changjiang, chief of China's product quality assurance agency.

"We understand and appreciate deeply the issues that this has caused for the reputation of Chinese manufacturers."

More than 21 million Chinese-made Mattel toys were included in three recalls ordered by the company this summer. Barbie doll accessories and toy cars were among the items on the list of products recalled over concerns about lead paint and tiny magnets that could be swallowed.

Chinese sub-contractors received the majority of the criticism over the recalls, and several firms were fired.

China has complained that manufacturers were taking the blame for mistakes that were made at the design end of the process.

Debrowski pointed out that lead-painted toys accounted for only a small percentage of all the toys recalled.

"We understand and appreciate deeply the issues that this has caused for the reputation of Chinese manufacturers," he said.

Mattel also released a statement, saying the company may have been overly cautious in its actions, recalling toys that did not present any kind of danger due to paint.

"The follow-up inspections also confirmed that part of the recalled toys complied with the U.S. standards," the statement said.

Mattel has announced plans to require supplier certification and to do more random, unannounced inspections.

During the meeting Li reminded Dobrowski that much of Mattel's annual profit comes from factories in China. He also chastised Mattel for allowing the mistakes to go through and said he hopes the company will "improve their control measures."

"This shows that our co-operation is in the interests of Mattel, and both parties should value our co-operation. I really hope that Mattel can learn lessons and gain experience from these incidents,'' Li said.

With files from The Associated Press