A resolution in the latest government gazette prohibits smoking in offices, stores, theaters, buses and taxis, schools, sports facilities and air-conditioned public areas.

The government says it wants to discourage tobacco use. About half of Cuban adults smoke and lung cancer is a major cause of death.

The measure seeks to change long-ingrained habits in the . country of 11 million people where subsidized cigarettes -- unfiltered and made of strong dark tobacco -- are still handed out with the government ration book.

Early European explorers first came across tobacco in Cuba where the natives smoked the leaves. The Caribbean island is renowned for its hand-rolled cigars, a $240 million (128 million pounds) per year export industry.

The resolution bans cigarette vending machines outright, and the sale of tobacco to children under age 16 or within a block of schools. Restaurants, cafes and nightclubs will have nonsmoking areas.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro (news - web sites), once a big cigar chomper, gave up the habit in 1986 but still gives boxes of prime cigars as gifts.

"The best thing you can do with this box of cigars is to give them away to your enemy," he said two years ago in a speech.

By: Reuters