Apple Computers and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission decided Friday to replace some Apple iBook and PowerBook computer batteries.

The motivation for the gesture was that the batteries could overheat and pose a fire hazard to consumers. The problem is caused by an internal short discovered in the batteries made by LG Chem of South Korea and assembled in Taiwan and China.

Apple and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Comission have said that about 128,000 units with this kind of problems were sold in the United States, but Apple received already six reports worldwide of batteries overheating and only two from US.

The recalled lithium ion batteries are used with the 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4.

The recalled batteries include those with model number A1061, A1078 and A1079 and serial numbers that begin with HQ441 through HQ507 or 3X446 through 3X510.

Computers with the batteries in question were sold from October 2004 through May 2005 for prices ranging from $900 to $2 300. The batteries, made by LG Chem Ltd. of South Korea, were also sold separately for about $130.

User should check if their batteries are amongst those affected by the problem and if that is true, Apple can be contacted regarding the battery recall at 1-800-275-2273 or on the following page at the company's Web site: http://www.apple.com/support/batteryexchange