Iraq's Kurdistan stubs out smoking ads

ARBIL, Iraq, Oct 12 (Reuters) The government of Iraq's Kurdistan region has banned tobacco advertising and ordered billboards promoting smoking to be removed, a spokesman of the Kurdish Health Ministry said.

''The minister wants the ministry to implement some measurements to preserve public health as those implemented in the European countries,'' spokesman Nowzad Abdul-Aziz told Reuters yesterday.

The ban, which went into effect on October 1, applies to the three provinces of the autonomous northern region.

Abdul-Aziz said his ministry would soon launch a health awareness programme to help Kurds kick the habit, including smoking bans at state-owned buildings.

''We think that working slowly on this would be more effective as people would not agree if we impose laws on them,'' he said.

A Reuters reporter in Kurdistan's capital Arbil saw government workers clearing billboards advertising cigarettes from roads.

REUTERS AB RN0854