Chinese authorities have urged all provinces and major cities to set up 24-hour crisis hotlines to provide information and help to people affected by tainted milk.

Parents wait for their children to undergo a health inspection at a hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province, 19 Sep 2008

The order Saturday from the Ministry of Health follows directions Friday from China's State Council, or Cabinet, that doctors should provide free medical care for babies who have gotten kidney stones from contaminated milk.

The milk, laced with the chemical melamine, is blamed for killing four infants and sickening more than 6,200 others.

Recalls have been announced by Hong Kong authorities and by a major Japanese food company, Marudai Food Company, for products that may have been made with Chinese milk.  Malaysia and Singapore have banned milk from China.  Burmese authorities are promising to seize and destroy Chinese milk products.

And the U.S.-based Starbucks coffee chain has pulled all its products made with milk from its more than 300 stores in China.

China's top food quality body released a report Friday that said some milk sold by the country's three major dairy companies, Mengniu Dairy, Yili Industrial Group and Bright Dairy, was contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.  The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine report said 10 percent of milk samples were tainted with the chemical.

Concerns about milk and other dairy products have widened the scope of the scandal originally limited to infant formula.

Twenty two dairies have been found selling products tainted with melamine, a chemical that is believed to have been used in milk to make it appear to be higher in protein.

No cases of tainted milk products causing illness have been reported outside of China, but at least two of the 22 dairies listed by Chinese authorities export to other countries in Asia and Africa.

Eighteen people have been arrested in connection with the food scandal.  Six of those allegedly sold the chemical, while the other 12 were suppliers accused of contaminating the milk.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.