China's chief quality regulator resigned yesterday as Beijing sought to contain an escalating crisis over tainted milk that has left nearly 13,000 children in hospital and provoked many Asian governments to recall products that contain dairy ingredients from China.

The official Xinhua news agency said Li Changjiang, director of the general administration of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine, China's top product quality regulator, had stepped down with the approval of the cabinet. Mr Li is the highest-ranking official so far to be brought down by the scandal.

A government announcement dramatically increased the official toll of illness caused by consuming milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. It said 12,892 children, most of them under the age of two, had been admitted to hospital and nearly 40,000 more had been examined or treated in hospital and released.