LIVERPOOL could become the first city in the UK to ban smoking in public places, if a bill before the city's council is adopted next month.

The ban would make it illegal to smoke in restaurants, pubs, shops, offices and other enclosed workplaces.

If councillors approve the bill, they would then petition Parliament for a smoke-free law for Liverpool.

The council says it would impose a fine of £1,000 on anyone breaching the law, which it wants passed within a year.

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Councillor Richard Oglethorpe, the city council's executive member of green issues, said more than 1,000 people died of illnesses related to passive smoking each year in Liverpool.

"Liverpool is the lung cancer capital of the United Kingdom. It's not a title we're proud of, it's one we want to get rid of," he said.

He said a ban was supported by smokers and non-smokers alike.

"Most smokers want to give up and the place where they find it hardest to give up is when you go into a bar, you've had a few drinks, everyone else is smoking so people tend to go back to their old ways.

"Introducing the smoking ban will help people give up."

He rejected claims that a ban, like that now in force in Ireland, was part of a "nanny state" mentality, insisting the aim was to protect the health of vulnerable workers.

He said he was "quietly confident" that a majority of Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors would support the bill when it was considered by the council.

If it is approved, a petition would have to reach Parliament by November 27 to be considered in the next legislative session.

An official report by medical scientists, which emerged on Monday, found that breathing in secondhand smoke massively increased the risk of lung cancer and heart disease.

Campaigners said the report strengthened the case for a nationwide ban on smoking in public places.

But a pro-smoking lobby group argued that the case against passive smoking has never been properly proven.