Nearly 3.4 million Japanese-brand vehicles are being recalled worldwide because of airbag problems. The car-makers concerned are Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mazda.

Toyota alone is recalling 1.73 million vehicles manufactured between November 2000 and March 2004 in Japan or abroad.

The company said the involved vehicles are equipped with front passenger airbag inflators which could have been assembled with improperly-manufactured propellor wagers.

This could cause front passenger airbags to deploy abnormally in the event of a crash and could also burn part of the vehicles inside and cause fire. There were no injuries or deaths reported as a result of the faulty airbags, Toyota said.

Nissan and Honda gave similar explanations for the recall. Honda said it is recalling around 1.14 million vehicles, Nissan said it is recalling about 480,000 vehicles globally with Mazda recalling some 45,500 vehicles.

It is the latest safety blow for the industry in recent years. This recall is the biggest since Toyota pulled back more than 7 million vehicles last October.