In its strongest action yet, China's highest level of government called the industry "chaotic" and acknowledged there was a lack of oversight.

At yesterday's meeting of the State Council, or cabinet, the government said it would punish companies and officials involved in the contamination of milk products that is blamed in the deaths of four babies and for sickening more than 54,000 children.

The scandal revealed "that China's dairy production and circulation has been chaotic and supervision has been gravely absent," said a notice about the meeting on the government's Web site. Unscrupulous "elements" and companies had also put profit above people's lives, it said.

Police detained six more people suspected of tampering with milk in northern China, a spokeswoman said, bringing to 32 the number of arrests in the scandal.

Yesterday's meeting, which Premier Wen Jiabao chaired, was China's latest effort to show it is tackling the widespread contamination of milk and other dairy products with melamine, an industrial chemical used in making plastics and fertilizers. It was the second time the State Council has met since the crisis broke last month.

China has struggled to contain public dismay and growing international concern, castigating local officials for negligence while promising to raise product-safety standards. But the scandal has continued to lead to recalls and the blocking of Chinese imports in many countries.

Wang Yong, the head of China's quality watchdog, said the country was stepping up checks on its exports to ensure they conformed to the food-safety standards of recipient countries, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Part of the cleanup effort by Wang's agency, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, was the deployment in mid-September of more than 5,000 inspectors to check dairy factories. Wang said the inspections would monitor the entire production process around the clock.

Chinese authorities believe suppliers trying to cut costs diluted milk, then added melamine to fool quality-control tests and make the product appear rich in protein. But melamine can cause kidney stones as the body tries to eliminate it and, in extreme cases, can lead to life-threatening kidney failure.

Earthquakes Kill 81 In Kyrgyzstan, Tibet

A powerful earthquake rocked Kyrgyzstan, killing at least

72 people and leveling a remote mountain village, officials said yesterday.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured magnitude 6.6 and struck about 10 p.m. Sunday in the Osh region in the south of the Central Asian republic.

Yesterday, two quakes struck Tibet, a remote mountainous region of China, state news media reported. They revised an earlier estimate of at least 30 killed to nine dead.

The Geological Survey said the first quake was magnitude 6.6 and struck 50 miles west of the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The second, magnitude 5.1, hit about 15 minutes later, 60 miles west of Lhasa, it said.

The Kyrgyzstan quake flattened Nura, a town of 960 residents near the China border.

The death toll could rise, officials said.

- Inquirer wire services