Japanese car maker Honda is recalling 304,000 vehicles worldwide over air bags that may inflate with too much pressure in a crash, potentially causing injury or death by sending metal and plastic pieces flying.

Honda said there have been 20 accidents so far related to this problem, including two deaths in the US in 2009.

The motoring giant announced the recall which affects Accord, Civic, Odyssey, Pilot, CR-V and other models, manufactured in 2001 and 2002.

The recall spans 273,000 vehicles in the US, 27,000 in Canada, nearly 2,000 vehicles in Japan and another 2,000 in other countries.

The latest recall is an expansion of recalls for the same problem in 2008, and again carried out in 2009, as well as last year. The recall now covers about two million vehicles worldwide, according to Tokyo-based Honda.

Company spokesman Hajime Kaneko said the cause of the problem was the use of incorrect material in the chemical used to deploy air bags.

But that problem was found later to affect more vehicles than initially estimated, and the recall had to be expanded, he said. Honda is expecting no more recalls linked to this issue.

Also included in the latest recall are 912 air bag service parts sold for installation in vehicles for collision repairs.