The American Toy Industry Association, whose members include Mattel Inc. and Hasbro Inc., said its board unanimously approved a plan for a new testing system following the recall of tens of millions of Chinese-made toys last year.

The proposal includes more stringent procedures for analyzing safety during the design and manufacturing of toys, as well as the testing of finished products, a vice president for the group, Joan Lawrence, said yesterday. The proposal applies to the industry, not just the association’s members, Ms. Lawrence said.

The $22 billion American toy industry was rocked last year by the recall of tens of millions of Chinese-made products, many for containing excessive lead paint or magnets that could be swallowed. Toy-makers and retailers have implemented stricter standards and Congress has introduced legislation to overhaul consumer-safety laws.

“The industry takes the issue of the recalls in ’07 very seriously,” Ms. Lawrence said in a phone interview from New York. “We have created a very aggressive program to fix the lapse we saw in the safety-assurance process.”

The new standards come during the American International Toy Fair, held February 17 to 20 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. More than 1,200 exhibitors will show their 2008 line to 15,000 buyers and 21,000 toy-industry professionals, the association said yesterday in a statement.

Toys “R” Us Inc., the largest American toy-store chain, said last week it would adopt standards for surface lead paint that are stricter than the American government’s. It would also require manufacturers to increase testing of their products by outside laboratories for all shipments on or after March 1.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is implementing the same lead-paint standards for new toys as Toys “R” Us. As of March, Wal-Mart will require all new and reordered toys to be tested by independent labs, spokesman Nick Agarwal said yesterday.