HONG KONG - Beneath the glare of the mahjong parlour's white fluorescent tubes and roving security cameras, a grizzled, 70-year-old pro clatters his tiles against the table, a cigarette burning slowly between his lips.

"Ban or no ban, it's not going to stop me," Mr. Liu declared, puffing smoke into the air in a parlour crowded with smokers noisily sorting marked tiles into winning combinations as they play the classic Chinese game of mahjong.

After close to a decade of political wrangling and fervent industry opposition, Hong Kong has followed the lead of European countries such as Ireland, and several major US cities, by banning smoking in most public places.

Under the new laws, smoking will be illegal from January 2007 in all indoor workplaces and public venues serving customers of all ages, including restaurants, parks and beaches.

Anti-smoking activists were disappointed the bill was watered down to give an exemption until mid-2009 to some of the worst smoking blackspots catering to adults over 18 such as bars, saunas, nightclubs and mahjong parlours.

But they said the bill still made Hong Kong a "frontrunner" in Asia for anti-smoking laws and set an example for China, which has more smokers than any other country on earth.

"When you talk about 350 million smokers in China, I'm sure the Chinese authorities are quite worried. So what we're doing in Hong Kong will give them a very nice leverage," said Dr. Homer Tso, chairman of the Council on Smoking and Health.

Tso said it would still take at least 30 to 50 years for China to properly address its smoking problem even though it ratified the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control last year.

SMOKERS PARADISE

Hong Kong has long had the image of a smokers' paradise where its highly driven work force, members of criminal gangs or triads, and local celebrities lit up to escape the pressure-cooker stresses of the fast-paced, densely populated city.

According to Hong Kong government statistics, there were 793,000 daily smokers in the city of 6.9 million last year, some 14 percent of the population.

Whilst not particularly high compared to places like France, Japan or China, Hong Kong's total health-related costs from active and passive smoking have been estimated by the University of Hong Kong at HK$5.3 billion ($681 million) per year.

Tso, who has pursued this anti-smoking bill with almost missionary zeal since 2001 when it was put forward, said he was confident the legislation would change Hong Kong's smoking culture.

"I think Hong Kong people have a consensus, Hong Kong people are aware of the harm of tobacco and they have expressed it, so hopefully ... this will be resonated through the legislation," he said.

Stringent anti-smoking bans in Europe and the United States have been making their way to Asia in recent years since Ireland passed the world's first nationwide smoking ban in pubs, restaurants and workplaces in 2004.

Singapore bans smoking in public transport, theatres, government offices, open-air food halls, air-conditioned restaurants and shopping centres as well as queues of more than two people, such as at taxi stands.

It requires gruesome photographs of people dying of lung cancer, diseased lungs and decayed teeth to be emblazoned across cigarette packets along with severe health warnings.

The tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan bans sale of tobacco products as part of stringent anti-smoking laws as it seeks to become the world's first non-smoking country.

SMOKERS ALARMED

In Hong Kong, the catering industry fought hard against the proposed bill citing heavy reliance on patronage from smokers.

It has warned of heavy layoffs and closures of establishments, especially once the 30-month grace period for bars, karaokes and mahjong parlours wears off.

The government is now considering allowing "smoking rooms" in public venues such as restaurants using independent ventilation systems.

Anti-smoking groups and legislators criticised this as a way for leisure premises to sidestep the eventual ban in mid-2009.

But the government, which had previously expressed reservations about such a move, said the smoking room proposal was just an idea, needing further legislative approval. It added that such rooms might prevent the possibility of greater numbers of smokers spilling onto Hong Kong's crowded streets.

"We all know that a lot of passageways and streets have a lot of smokers standing around smoking. Next year there could be even more," said Health Secretary York Chow during the legislative hearing last week when the bill was passed.

"We want the public to be healthy and the number of smokers to decline, but every society must go through this in phases. We can't do it in one go," he said.