(AP) - Toy safety regulators said Monday that ZhuZhu Pets - one of the holiday season's hottest toy crazes - do notviolate federal safety standards after all.

A spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission toldThe Associated Press the toy "is not out of compliance" with anew U.S. toy safety law that began taking effect this year. Theagency did not test the toy.

The California-based consumer group GoodGuide raised concernslast weekend over the presence of a potentially harmful heavy metalin a Mr. Squiggles model of the robotic hamsters that it tested.

The group said its testing found levels of antimony, a heavy metalthat can cause vomiting if eaten and heart and lung problems ifbreathed, on the toy's hair and nose that exceeded new federallimits.

But those claims fell apart Monday, when GoodGuide announcedthat the way it got its test results - using a special gun thatshoots X-rays into a toy and gives a reading for how much lead,antimony or other substances are in the material - is notrecognized by the CPSC to judge whether a toy is hazardous.

Instead, the CPSC tests how much of a heavy metal would actuallyseep out if a kid sucked or swallowed a toy - not just how much ofa potentially dangerous substance a toy contains.

"While we accurately reported the chemical levels in the toysthat we measured using our testing method, we should not havecompared our results to federal standards," GoodGuide said in awritten release. "We regret this error."

Later in the day, the CPSC told AP that it concluded the furrytoy, which retails for about $10, does not pose a threat based onindependent testing presented by the toy's manufacturer, Cepia LLC,which is based in St. Louis.