New rules on marketing tobacco products will mean all cigarettes sold in the EU from the start of 2003 must have a health warning covering 30 per cent of the packet saying "smoking kills," "smoking can kill" or "smoking severely harms you and those around you." A new ban on potentially misleading terms calling cigarettes "mild" and "light" looks likely to spell the end, at least in the EU, of well known brands such as "Marlboro Lights," made by tobacco giant Philip Morris.

In a controversial effort to smash smoking's appeal, especially with young people, national governments will be able to choose whether or not to insist on the pictorial warnings.

EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne said the law was one step in achieving a reduction in the number of Europeans that smoke - from one in three, down to the US levels of less than one in five of the adult population.

"This agreement represents a watershed in the fight against the scourge of tobacco," Mr Byrne told a news conference.

The ban on terms like "mild" and "light" - which usually refer to taste but have nothing to do with how harmful a cigarette is - may force some cigarette makers to a radical rebranding of some of their products. Philip Morris said it had yet to see the final version of the law but that it would change the name of Marlboro Lights if the law required. "We will do it," a vice-president at Philip Morris said. "If we are not permitted to use the word "lights," and I think there is a big question mark today on that, obviously we will follow the law." Asked if the company was already planning a new name for the cigarettes, he said: "We don't need a new name for Marlboro, it's one of the world's most valuable trade marks.

"We will obviously explore ways in which we can communicate what we believe is valuable and important information to consumers about the different products we make."

The EU deputy who represented the European Parliament in drafting the legislation, Dutch Liberal Jules Maaten, said he believed the law was clear: "As regards Marlboro Lights or any other lights it is certainly the parliament's understanding that they will no longer be able to use those terms," he said.

The law will also compel tobacco companies to disclose to governments exactly what they put in their cigarettes, including any potentially harmful additives. Mr Maarten said this would finally close a loophole which allowed cigarette makers much more lax rules than food companies. It will also set a limit on some of the harmful constituents in tobacco. EU cigarettes will have a maximum of 10 milligrams of tar per cigarette and for the first time there will be upper limits on nicotine and carbon monoxide. The latest EU volley against the tobacco industry follows just months after the European Court of Justice threw out on a legal technicality a previous European directive which would have banned tobacco advertising and sponsorship by 2006.