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They hope the sweeping new proposals - including raising tobacco prices and keeping cigarettes hidden from view in shops - will make it harder for children...

SHOPKEEPERS should be licensed to sell cigarettes like they are for alcohol, doctors said yesterday.

Medical experts have also called for a ban on packets of 10 and vending machines in pubs and clubs in an effort to cut the 112,000 smoking-related deaths each year.

They hope the sweeping new proposals - including raising tobacco prices and keeping cigarettes hidden from view in shops - will make it harder for children to buy them.

A BMA report said: "A licensing scheme, already in place for shops that wish to sell alcohol, should be introduced to bring tobacco sales into line with alcohol sales."

The group's Dr Vivienne Nathanson added: "Cigarettes must be made more inaccessible to children.

"By banning 10-pack cigarettes and tobacco vending machines and making tobacco products more expensive, fewer children will be able to buy them. It is essential we break the tobacco trap.

"Young smokers will become tomorrow's parents who smoke and continue the cycle of ill health and premature death."

The BMA's proposals will be handed to health chiefs who are keen to follow up the public smoking ban on July 1 with a whole range of tough measures.

One Department of Health source said last night: "We will take this very seriously.

"We want to maintain the momentum brought about by the ban on smoking in public places in England coming into force." The hard-hitting report also calls for health departments to ensure services to help people quit are adequately funded.

In addition to money already provided, two per cent of the revenues raised from tobacco tax should be ring-fenced for use in providing cessation services especially in areas of deprivation, it said.

But Richard Dodd, spokesman for the British Retail Consortium, said: "We don't think there is a need for a licensing regime for all retailers of cigarettes because responsible retailers don't sell to youngsters."

A fifth of teenagers are described as regular smokers, government research says. Ten per cent say they were given fags by their parents.

The children of smokers are said to be three times more likely to take up the habit than those whose parents don't smoke. Exposure can cause respiratory illness, cancer and heart disease in children. From October, the legal age to buy cigarettes will rise from 16 to 18.

Smoking kills 70,000 men and 42,000 women a year.

France, Ireland, Canada and Australia have already banned the sale of 10-packs.

Norway and New Zealand are considering making shops adopt a "total non-public display" policy for cigarettes.