By Lars Bevanger BBC News Online, Svalbard

Norway's new ban on smoking in bars and restaurants is being particularly keenly felt in the country's high Arctic north.

In Norway's northernmost part, the Arctic island of Svalbard, even summer temperatures rarely rise above freezing.

Smokers say they run the risk of bear encounters

Until they open a pub on the North Pole, this is the northernmost place in the world to enjoy a beer and a cigarette.

But now the smokers of Svalbard will have to indulge at home or brave sub-zero temperatures and possible polar-bear attacks when going outside the pub for a nicotine rush.

The smoking ban exists to protect people at work, and the bars up here are no exception.

It is summer here but, being only around 1,000km (620 miles) south of the North Pole, this place remains freezing.

You go outside and get some fresh, cold air - that's okay Norwegian smoker

Many Norwegians reacted with horror when their country became the first in the world to suggest a blanket ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, but as the idea sank in and people have seen how a similar ban is working in Ireland, a majority of Norwegians now support the new law.

One smoker here didn't even feel the ice-cold temperatures should deter people from stepping outside to smoke.

"I think it's a jolly good idea," he said.

"You go outside and get some fresh, cold air - that's okay. In Norway we have good clothes so I don't see that as any problem."

The state is meddling in people's lives Gunnar Nordtoemme

But smoker Gunnar Nordtoemme, who has been working as a miner in Svalbard's coal mines for almost 30 years, thinks the law goes too far.

"The state is meddling in people's lives," he says.

"I understand that people who work in bars and restaurants need to be protected against too much smoke, but that can be done by designated smoking areas," he told BBC News Online as he braved the sub-zero temperatures to enjoy another cigarette outside.

Avid smokers on the mainland have started enjoying the long Scandinavian summer nights at outdoor restaurants, which are mushrooming to accommodate those who want to stick with their habit.

Here in the high Arctic north, smokers are less fortunate.

To add insult to injury, this whole island is a duty-free zone and cigarettes cost a fraction of the heavily-taxed tobacco in the rest of Norway.

But come the Scandinavian winter, and all of Norway's smokers will face the same dilemma: break the law, freeze your fingers off, or simply quit.