Honda is the latest car manufacturer to announce a major extension to its recall programme over a world airbag alert.

The company confirmed on Thursday it was bringing in for checks almost 4.9 million more cars fitted with the airbags, which have been linked to at least five deaths worldwide.

The airbags, manufactured and supplied by Takata, have been found to have potentially fatal inflators.

The investigations revealed that moisture was able to weaken seals in the system, leaving the inflators at risk of erupting with too much force and spraying a car's interior with shards of metal.

High humidity has been identified as being a primary cause of the company's airbag propellant becoming volatile.

Daihatsu said it was also recalling a number of additional vehicles.

The developments were announced 24 hours after Toyota and Nissan said they were taking back 6.5 million vehicles worldwide.

The motor manufacturers have all insisted the recalls are precautionary.

Takata faces multiple class-action lawsuits in the United States and Canada as well as an American criminal investigation and a regulatory probe.

The Japanese firm was threatened with legal action by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last year when it failed to support a country-wide recall of vehicles fitted with its airbags.

Takata has said it expects to return to profit in its current financial year but analysts have warned it has made few provisions for possible extra costs associated with the airbag issues, which date back as far as 2008.