UN: More than 190 countries have approved the first international treaty against smoking, including an advertising ban, aimed at breaking a habit that kills nearly five million people a year.
The World Health Assembly, the annual meeting of the World Health Organisation's 192 countries, unanimously adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that commits them to fighting the "devastating . . . consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure".
"Today we are acting to save billions of lives and protect people's health for generations to come. This is a historic moment," said the WHO's director-general, Ms Gro Harlem Brundtland.
The pact, which was agreed by member-states in March after three years of negotiations, requires countries to ban or set tough restrictions on tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion within five years.
It also lays down guidelines on health warnings on cigarette packets, recommends tax increases on tobacco products and calls for a crackdown on cigarette-smuggling.
The UN health agency says 4.9 million people die each year from cancer, cardiovascular disease and other conditions linked to smoking and that the toll is likely to exceed 10 million by 2020, with 70 per cent of the victims in the developing world.
Many of the pact's policies are already applied in rich countries, but for much of the developing world it marks the first attempt to fight what the WHO says is already the biggest cause of premature death.
The chairman of the pact's drafting committee, Mr Luiz Seixas de Correa of Brazil, told a news conference it would probably take about a year to achieve the 40 ratifications the pact needs to come into force.
South Africa, one of the few developing countries with strong anti-tobacco laws, said it had been pressing for an even tougher treaty, particularly on financial aid for poorer states in implementing the pact.
"The convention is not for us an end in itself. It is a beginning," South Africa's Health Minister, Ms Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang, told the assembly.
Smooth passage of the pact was guaranteed after the United States said at the weekend it was withdrawing its objections.