Shares of Dell Inc. fell 1.6 percent in Europe on Tuesday. Late Monday, the world's largest personal computer maker said it will recall 4.1 million notebook computer batteries because they could overheat and catch fire. Shares of the company were trading at 21.01 dollars on the Inet electronic brokerage network before the opening bell on Tuesday.

In this morning the stock fell as much as 1.6 percent to the equivalent of 20.90 U.S. dollars in Germany after closing at 21.24 dollars on the Nasdaq on Monday. They traded at 20.93 dollars as of 11:14 a.m. in Frankfurt.

This will be the largest safety recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

The recalled batteries were used in 2.7 million computers sold in the United States and 1.4 million sold overseas. The total is about 18 percent of Dell's notebook production during the period in question.

Dell has reported six instances since December in which notebooks overheated or erupted in flames. There were property damage, but no injuries or death. Dell said the problems were a result of a manufacturing defect in batteries made by Sony.

Sony on Tuesday said it would pay some of the costs involved in Dell's recall of millions of notebook computer batteries made by the Japanese company.

"Dell will pay some of the costs, Sony will pay some of the costs," a spokesman of the Japanese consumer electronics group told the Financial Times.

Source:Xinhua/Agencies