Sony has announced a global recall of battery packs that suffer from potentially dangerous overheating problems.

The company said that it will work with all manufacturers which have incorporated the batteries into their laptops to organise replacements.

Prior to Sony's announcement, concerns about overheating had led to the recall of around six million Sony lithium ion batteries.

Following Sony's recall notice, Dell will now recall an additional 100,000 batteries taking its total to 4.2 million.

The Dell Battery Programme website, set up to help users determine whether their batteries are affected, has received over 200 million hits since its launch on 15 August. 

Shortly after Dell's announcement, Apple announced the recall of 1.8 million batteries in three of its laptop models due to overheating dangers. The lithium ion batteries at the centre of both recalls were manufactured by Sony. 

Toshiba will also be recalling batteries as part of the Sony global recall. On 19 September Toshiba recalled Sony batteries for re-charging problems not related to the overheating issues.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued an advisory to consumers detailing ways to avoid battery overheating.

Sony has confirmed that it will lose up to a quarter of its profit this year as a result of the faulty notebook PC batteries.