By Mabvuto Banda

LILONGWE, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Malawi has banned imports of all Chinese milk products after contaminated milk and formula killed four children and made thousands others ill in China, the trade minister said on Friday.

Chinese-made milk products have been pulled off shelves worldwide in a widening health scandal after the industrial chemical melamine was found in milk and milk formula. Melamine is used to cheat nutrition tests.

Many African nations rely heavily on cheap Chinese imports.

"We have put all our eyes on the imported milk and we are restricting entry of all milk into the country from China," minister Henry Mussa told Reuters.

Director-general of Malawi's bureau of standards, Devlin Chokazinga, said authorities were testing some samples of imported powdered milk from China and Asia.

"What we are doing is qualitative analysis since we cannot actually do the quantitative test for the identification of melamine because we don't have equipment," Chokazinga said.

Malawi established diplomatic relations with China in December last year. (Editing by Opheera McDoom)

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