The country's Medical Products Agency has said that three brands of silicon breast implants are being banned in Sweden because of the possibility they could burst.

The Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra reported on Friday that the action against the implants manufactured by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) of France follows a decision by French authorities to ban the products in their country.

Some 35,000 to 45,000 European women are estimated to have received the faulty implants but there is no record of how many Swedish women are among those affected.

The devices were called "a cut-price product, which does not fulfill our quality standards," by one Swedish surgeon, who said his clinic never used the PIP implants.

He does not see any reason for Swedish women who have the PIP implants to be overly concerned, a spokesman for Sweden's Medical Products Agency said.