Pregnant woman have been warned against the use of cosmetics, for it could lead to birth defects.

The warning follows a study, which found that women exposed to high levels of hair spray during pregnancy were twice as likely to have babies born with a urinary tract defect.

It encouraged calls for a new European cosmetics labelling system that would mark out some products as off-limits to mothers-to-be.

The French Government declared last week considering such a labelling system for cosmetics.

"Women who are planning to conceive or who are in the first three months of pregnancy should look at what they are using,” the Australian quoted Prof Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, as saying.

"The cosmetics industry needs to look at this and clearly label their products.

"Anything like this raises concerns, but I don't think people should panic," he added.