By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING, Nov 2 (Reuters) - China needs a product safety promotion campaign on the scale of that rolled out to fight SARS, state media on Friday quoted the head of a national taskforce as saying, warning of huge quality problems yet to be solved.

Vice Premier Wu Yi -- who is leading China's effort to stamp out tainted, toxic and dangerous food and exports after a damaging torrent of scares -- said lack of information at the village level and poor enforcement of laws were big challenges.

And just because a recent crackdown had achieved positive results, nobody should rest on their laurels, the feisty Wu added in a speech published on Friday in government mouthpiece newspaper, the People's Daily.

"Looking back at the last two months of work, it can be said that progress has not been insignificant, results have been obvious -- and this has not come easily," she said. "But there are still many weak links and our task is increasingly hard."

Many pigs were still being slaughtered in unhygienic, underground abattoirs as farmers could not afford to take their animals anywhere else, and in any case many farmers have no idea about food safety laws.

"Everywhere must engage in propaganda, just like that promoting patriotism, public health and family planning, pushing safety knowledge on farm product quality and safety on a grand scale," Wu said.

"Agricultural departments must arrange special budgets, as during the SARS outbreak, to print propaganda posters and illustrated booklets, putting them into the hands of every farmer, and sending them to every rural school," she added.

Wu, nicknamed China's "Iron Lady" for her no-nonsense approach to thorny issues, was rushed in to head China's SARS battle headquarters in 2003 after the health minister and Beijing mayor were sacked for covering up the spread of the deadly virus.

The government is hoping she can pull off the same trick in her new role, winning back a sceptical world unnerved by scandals involving poor quality Chinese products, including fish, toothpaste toys and cough medicine.

But she faces an enormous task in the world's most populous nation, where around 700 million people live in the countryside and have mostly missed out on the economic boom seen in major cities and on the coast.

There were a plethora of small restaurants and food processing plants, and toxic chemicals and veterinary drugs were widely used despite being banned, Wu complained.

"They are cheap, appear to work quickly, farmers are willing to use them and factories to make them and illegally sell them," she said. "If this problem is not solved, it's just empty talk to say we'll be able to guarantee at the root farm produce quality and safety."

Wu also spoke about the country's myriad factories whose cheaply made toys, fridges, watches and other consumer goods have reached into every corner of the globe, but who have also been at the centre of the safety storm.

In the latest case, a Chinese-made beaded decoration attached to about 4,000 girls' cosmetic gift sets sold at Tween Brands Inc's <TWB.N> Limited Too retail stores are being recalled because of unsafe levels of lead paint.

That follows a summer in which millions of Chinese-made toys from Mattel Inc and others were pulled from shelves worldwide due to excess amounts of lead in paint and potentially dangerous design flaws. Lead can be toxic in large doses.

Wu, while reminding companies to be carefully about sourcing raw materials, said it was also their responsibility to ensure designs they were contracted to make were safe.

"Look closely at the safety of these designs," she said. "Don't just look at how pretty your products are. Seriously think about the effect on human health."

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