Spaniards, among Europe’s heaviest smokers, will soon be banned from lighting up in most public places, barred from buying tobacco until they are 18 and sheltered from temptation in the form of advertising.

Under a new draft law approved on Friday, serious offences such as breaking a proposed ban on tobacco advertising can be punished with fines of up to 600,000 euros ($784,000).

Those who simply light up in the wrong place can be fined 30 euros, the government said.

“The draft (law) we have approved will serve to prevent people starting to smoke, to protect non-smokers and help those who do smoke to stop,” Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told a news conference after the weekly cabinet meeting.

“It is absolutely necessary to fight this danger in an active way.”

More than 30 percent of Spaniards smoke and as the habit has been phased out in some workplaces and public spaces such as stations, smokers are more and more evident on the streets.

“In Spain tobacco causes more than 50,000 deaths a year - which represents 16 percent of all deaths among over-35s, or more than AIDS, alcohol, illegal drugs and road accidents combined,” the government said in a statement.

Once approved by Congress, Friday’s measures will immediately ban cigarette-related advertising, free gifts and sponsorship.

The other measures, such as raising the age for buying tobacco to 18 from 16 and obliging bars and restaurants of more than 100 square metres to set aside a zone for smokers, will be effective from January 2006.

Ireland, Italy and Malta have already banned smoking in public places. 650,000 Europeans die from smoking-related diseases every year.