Sony said it has stopped sales of its Xperia tablet PCs after discovering gaps between the screen and the case that make some of the machines susceptible to water damage.

The problem with the 'water resistant' tablet launched a month ago is related to a manufacturing flaw at the Chinese plant where it is fabricated, Sony said.

Sony Japan reported that possible effected tablets are the "SGPT121JP / S", "SGPT122JP / S", "SGPT123JP / S" series, which were sold in Japan. It is not clear whether models sold in other countries were also effected.

Sony's latest Android tablet is available in the United States Japan and Europe. Sony said it has already shipped around 100,000 devices around the world (27,000 in Japan) and that would offer free repairs or even recall defected devices.