BEIJING: China's battle against large scale production of fake condoms has taken a new turn with large stocks of these unsafe contraceptives finding their way to Italy and other foreign countries.

Italian customs recently seized 600,000 counterfeit condoms at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport. Customs officials have said they believe the condoms were produced in China.

Sources say China-made fake condoms may have been shipped to many other countries including India without being discovered by customs authorities . One reason is the extensive use of China's online shopping sites. China produces about 1 billion condoms a year, accounting for 25% of the world's total, the local media reports. It is not clear how much of it is fake but police action yields in millions of fakes every year.

Shanghai said they confiscated three million counterfeit condoms along with manufacturing machines in Shangha and Henan provinces on April 21. "I couldn't see any difference but a doctor told me that had been using counterfeit condoms," Guangdong-based The Time Weekly quoted Wan Wei, a man who got his wife pregnant twice without wanting to. "Such condoms may lead to accidental pregnancies and infections," a Guangzhou doctor was quoted as saying.

