Strongly worded letters from 4,500 British doctors landed on the doorstep of Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday, demanding an immediate ban on smoking in public places. They were delivered to Blair?s Downing Street residence in a giant cigarette packet labelled ?Passive smoking kills. Smoke-free work places save lives.?

?It is unequivocally clear that passive smoking kills in excess of 1,000 people a year in the United Kingdom,? Dr Peter Maguire of the British Medical Association (BMA) told BBC radio. ?We want to see an immediate and legislative ban on smoking as is currently enforced in the Republic of Ireland.?

Sixty five percent of Britons support a ban on smoking in enclosed public places such as pubs and restaurants, an ICM poll for BBC television said yesterday, while 34 percent oppose it. Support for a ban was 42 percent among smokers and 76 percent of non-smokers. Britain?s Labour government is considering a ban on smoking in public places ? similar to those in Ireland, Norway and parts of the United States ? but may leave legislation to local authorities.

?As a public health doctor I deal daily with the devastating impact of smoking,? one of the BMA letters to Blair read. Another said: ?I know that for infants and children, the effects of secondhand smoke can be serious.? The BMA said just one percent of British pubs were smoke-free, while 1.3 million British people breathe secondhand smoke at least 75 percent of the time at work. The campaign coincides with the launch of the government?s own anti-smoking television advert, which features a father-of-two dying from throat cancer.