LIUYANG, China China is the world's number one fireworks manufacturer and millions of its products were used to welcome last week's lunar new year -- but a large number are assembled by children in potentially deadly work environments.

Figures are not available, but visits to villages in China's firework production centers in the country's southeast this month and recent reports in Chinese media indicate the industry is highly dependent on underage workers.

In homes in the countryside of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces -- China's firework heartland -- Children spend as many as 12 hours a day making the products.

"We begin at 9:00 am and work until 9:30 pm. We stop only for lunch and dinner," said Liu Lizhi, aged 13.

She was working late into the night alongside her 11-year-old brother Liu Zhilin, making fireworks tubes in their home in the outskirts of Liuyang City, Hunan.

Some children perform much more dangerous work -- stuffing fuses and gunpowder into the tubes -- a task that has left many with missing fingernails or burned fingers, according to Beijing's ****Star Daily**** newspaper.

Others have suffered far more serious burns or have died in frequent explosions, only a small number of which are reported.

The peril of the work was shockingly emphasized last March when 42 people, mostly children, were killed at an explosion at a school which had forced pupils to make fireworks to help pay the school's expenses.

Parents told reporters at the time that their complaints to local authorities were ignored.

China vowed to crack down on illegally operated factories and recently banned filling fireworks with gunpowder in homes to improve safety.

However much of this work still takes place illicitly.

Factories supply raw materials and pay for the finished products, but turn a blind eye to how the fireworks are assembled, AFP quoted the ****Star Daily*** said.

Young, nimble hands are considered ideal in an industry where production can not be easily mechanized. Children's smaller fingers enable them to stuff fuses and gunpowder into the tubes more easily.