Domestic towel-makers will ask the government in the near future to impose an emergency curb on towel imports from China, officials of the Japan Towel Industrial Association said Wednesday.

Alarmed by surging imports, the industry group may file the request as early as this month, the officials said.

If taken, it will be the first "safeguard" restriction Japan has invoked. Countries are permitted under World Trade Organization rules to impose import curbs when domestic industries are endangered.

If requested, the economy, trade and industry minister will make a decision within about six months of beginning an investigation into the issue.

The nationwide association of towel makers will formalize its plan to seek the measure at a regular general meeting Feb. 16 in Osaka, the officials said.

Imported towels and blankets made of toweling expanded 16.6 percent in the January-November period of 2000 over the same period the year before to 59,000 tons, with 80 percent coming from China, according to the latest statistics.

The growth in imports boosted the share of such items on the domestic towel market to more than 60 percent and has caused small and midsize makers to go belly up, the officials said.

The number of domestic towel makers has dwindled by two-thirds during the last two decades, they said.

In view of the plight of domestic textile makers, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry decided to relax at the end of last year its prerequisites for invoking a textile import curb to match the international standard.

Other Japanese textile makers are also considering lodging similar requests with the government over a number of knitted and woven garments, industry officials say.

However, their preparatory work has been slow due partly to conflicting interests and because many makers have already shifted production to China, they said.

One company that has been particularly outspoken in opposing the move is Fast Retailing Co., which has 90 percent of its popular Uniqlo-brand apparel made in China so it can be sold domestically at low prices. As a result, Fast has been one of the few domestic companies enjoying a rapid increase in sales in Japan's lethargic economy.

WTO members agreed to make the prerequisites for safeguards more lenient for textiles than for other products, allowing a government to impose import quotas lasting up to three years to limit growth in certain products.