Lenovo Group Ltd said on Friday it will recall half a million batteries installed in Thinkpad and Lenovo laptop computers worldwide because of explosive risks.

With that announcement, all top PC makers - Dell Inc., Hewlett Packard Inc. and Lenovo - will have recalled problematic lithium-ion batteries made by Sony Corp, which have been found to overheat, and in a few cases to catch fire.

Lenovo, China's No. 1 and the world's No. 3 personal computer maker, will recall 526,000 batteries for its Thinkpads and 2,460 batteries for Lenovo-branded laptops, through cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and other regulatory agencies.

The batteries involved in the recall were installed in Thinkpad T series, R series and X series and X60s, as well as Lenovo Tianyi F40 and F40A models.

The batteries were sold from last February to this month, and about 5 to 10 percent of the total sold during the period need to be recalled, Lenovo said in a statement.

"Sony provides the financial support for the recall," Lenovo said in the statement, declining to elaborate.

Lenevo announced the recall program after a Thinkpad T43 exploded during use in a Los Angeles airport two weeks ago.

Before that, HP, the world's No. 2 PC maker, recalled 135,000 Sony batteries. Dell, the world's No. 1 PC maker, recalled 4.1 million Sony batteries, the biggest recall in the history of the electronics industry. Other PC vendors, including Apple Computer, Toshiba and Panasonic, also recalled the batteries.

Lenovo, which acquired IBM's PC unit last year, held 30 percent of the domestic laptop computer market in the second quarter, with sales totaling 900,000 units, according to CCID Consulting, a Beijing-based IT consulting firm under the Ministry of Information Industry.

Chinese consumers can automatically determine if their battery is included in the recall by visiting Lenovo's multi-language Website (www. lenovo.com/batteryprogram) with their laptop. Consumers can also type the number of the battery, which is on the back, into the Website to determine whether it is affected by the recall, or call a hotline (8008103315-3).

Lenovo said it will visit consumers at their homes or offices to exchange the problem batteries within four weeks after receiving their requests.