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WASHINGTON — President Bush has given a new Cabinet-level committee a very short timeline — just 60 days — to develop plans to guarantee the safety of food and products imported into the USA.

The Interagency Working Group on Import Safety was established and met for the first time Wednesday.

"The American people expect their government to work tirelessly to make sure consumer products are safe," Bush said after the first meeting.

In the past two months, U.S. regulators have announced recalls of Chinese-made children's jewelry, building sets and plastic castles as well as Chinese tires and toothpaste, all for safety problems.

In June, the Food and Drug Administration restricted imports of five kinds of farmed seafood from China because of concerns about drug and chemical contamination. This spring, pet food with tainted Chinese ingredients injured an untold number of pets.

The announcement comes a day after the head of the FDA told Congress that the agency needed what could be a "painful" overhaul to be ready for the 21st century. The FDA oversees 80% of the food supply but got only one-third of the $1.3 billion the FDA and the USDA spent on food safety in fiscal 2006. FDA inspects less than 1% of a growing volume of imported foods.

Congressional investigators said at Tuesday's hearing that they had found instances of importers bringing seafood into the USA via Las Vegas to avoid the scrutiny it would get at seaports and mislabeling suspect goods to escape FDA computers' detection.

Bush aides said Wednesday's action was not directed specifically at China.
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By: David Jackson and Elizabeth Weise - USA TODAY