Japanese automaker Honda has said it was expanding a previously-announced recall over unsafe airbags

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in some 2001 and 2002 model-year cars to include an additional 420,443 vehicles in the US and Canada.

"We have concluded that we cannot be completely certain that the driver's airbag inflator in the vehicles being added to the recall at this time will perform as designed," the company said in a statement.

The recall affects an additional 378,758 US vehicles and 41,685 vehicles in Canada.

Honda said airbag inflators in affected vehicles "could produce excessive internal pressure which may cause the airbag inflator casing to rupture, resulting in metal fragments passing through the airbag cushion material and possibly causing injury or fatality to vehicle occupants."

The statement said the company was aware of twelve incidents in total involving the defect and one fatality.

The expansion is the third the company has made over the airbag problem, bringing the total number of cars affected to more than 900,000.

A Honda spokeswoman in Tokyo said the company was also recalling "a small number of vehicles" elsewhere in the world," and that the company would announce the global figure today.

"It's primarily a North America recall," Honda US spokesman Chris Martin told AFP.