Brussels  - EU governments have agreed to make babies' duvets, cot mattresses and sleeping bags safer after a report suggesting that such products may cause thousands of injuries each year, officials in Brussels said Wednesday.

The need for new safety standards arises from the fact that current European Union rules only cover certain risks, such as hygiene requirements for feathers and downs.

Standards also vary within the 27-member bloc.

For instance, while Britain introduced strict requirements for cot bumpers following a string of highly-publicised deaths, other EU countries do not have similar rules.

The EU executive in Brussels, the European Commission, will now have to come up with specific proposals, which will then be submitted to the European Parliament and to national governments for approval.

These could include ways of ensuring that there are no gaps between cot mattress and the cot bases to minimise the risks of entrapment or asphyxia.

Baby sleeping bags, children's duvets and cot bumpers would not be allowed to have cords, loops, small detachable parts or sharp edges that could lead to strangulation, suffocation or other injuries, officials said.

According to the European Injury Database, 17,000 accidents involving children from 0 to 4 years happened in the cot in the EU's member states between 2005-2007.(dpa)