The company, whose brands include Embassy and Superkings, stepped up exports to "unusual markets" such as Afghanistan, Andorra and Moldova, the Commons public accounts committee found.

We are totally opposed to smuggling Imperial Tobacco

Meanwhile it saw an increase in its products being smuggled back into the UK - and a "substantial increase" in its international profits.

But customs officers who asked "legitimate questions" about its activities were "fobbed off", the MPs found.

Full co-operation

Anti-smoking campaigners are calling for a criminal investigation into the company's activities.

Imperial Tobacco has ended its trading agreements with the countries mentioned in the report and insisted it has always co-operated with customs officers.

Chief Executive Gareth Davis said the report was based on historical data.

Imperial Tobacco's apparent reluctance to help Customs tackle smuggling is highly unsatisfactory Edward Leigh, committee chairman

"Customs confirm they are satisfied that they are receiving all information they require from Imperial Tobacco," he said.

The firm expects to agree a memorandum of understanding "in the near future", he added.

Company spokesman Frank Rogerson said: "There continues to be a high level of co-operation existing at all levels between Customs and Excise and Imperial Tobacco and in no way at any time have we fobbed off Customs and Excise.

"We are totally opposed to smuggling and fully committed to working with Customs and Excise to help them stamp out the smuggling of cigarettes into the United Kingdom."

'Public duty'

The Commons public accounts committee found tobacco smuggling costs the government �2.8bn a year in lost revenue.

Two Imperial brands - Embassy Regal and Superkings - accounted for about half of all cigarettes smuggled into the UK, it said.

We keep coming back to the question of why Imperial exported so many billion cigarettes to places like Moldova, Kaliningrad and Afghanistan where there is no demand for them Clive Bates, ASH

According to customs estimates, the tax and duty lost through smuggling from these two brands alone was �1.4bn in 2001-02.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "Imperial Tobacco's apparent reluctance to help customs tackle smuggling is highly unsatisfactory.

"They persisted in exporting large volumes to places like Andorra and Kaliningrad when they must have known that the cigarettes could not possibly be for those domestic markets.

"And when Customs asked legitimate questions about this activity Imperial's approach was to fob them off.

"The company has a public duty to co�operate fully to help reduce these enormous losses to the public purse."

In a report published on Friday, the committee said: "Since 1997 there has been a marked increase in the number of cigarettes manufactured by Imperial Tobacco being smuggled back into the UK, which has coincided with a substantial increase in the company's international profits."

'Unfettered access'

The UK's other major tobacco companies, Gallaher, which makes Silk Cut and Benson and Hedges, and British American Tobacco, which produces Rothmans and Dunhill cigarettes, have signed agreements with customs to clamp down on smuggling.

Until such an agreement is signed with Imperial, government officials should be given "unfettered access" to relevant documents, the Commons committee said.

It also called on customs officers to target smaller operators and achieve more prosecutions.

Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: "We keep coming back to the question of why Imperial exported so many billion cigarettes to places like Moldova, Kaliningrad and Afghanistan where there is no demand for them".

He said the committee had done enough to show there must be a full criminal investigation into Imperial and smuggling.