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Anti-tobacco convention adopted

GENEVA May 20. The World Health Organisation's decision-making assembly gave preliminary approval on Tuesday to a landmark anti-tobacco convention, with speaker after speaker declaring that it will save millions of lives.

A key World Health Assembly Committee unanimously adopted the so-called Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which contains provisions to ban or restrict advertising, reduce second-hand smoke, introduce more prominent health warnings and control use of terms like low-tar on cigarette packs.

``The text you have in front of you represents a credible opportunity to save millions of lives and afford future generations right to health,'' said Luis Felipe de Seixas Correa, who chaired the negotiations leading to the accord.

The convention goes to the full World Health Assembly plenary meeting on Wednesday, but this is now just a formality.

Nearly 50 Health Ministers spoke in favour of the agreement — the first ever public health treaty drafted by WHO.

In a turnaround on Sunday, the U.S. said it would drop its reservations and back the accord, clearing the way for a unanimous adoption.

The U.S. announcement came as a complete surprise to most other countries.

However, the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson, stressed it would be a first step since the treaty still needs to be signed by the U.S. President, George W. Bush, and ratified by Congress.

The U.S. did not attend Tuesday's meeting, but Mr. Thompson will address Wednesday's plenary session.

The language of the treaty was agreed in March over U.S. objections that it did not allow countries to opt out of individual clauses — a procedure known as taking reservations.

The U.S. wrote to the other WHO member nations, saying that its ability to sign and ratify the convention was undermined by the ban on reservations and asking for support to reopen the negotiations and delete the ban. However, virtually no other country was willing to renegotiate the text.

AP

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