This is thought to be mainly due to the high number of teenagers who took up smoking in the early 1990s

New figures suggest that 12.78 million people - a marginal increase from 1995, were smoking in the year 2000.

However, levels of smoking are still nowhere near levels of a few decades ago.

In 1972 half the population smoked, although this figure fell away during the 80s and 90s.

But health campaigners have criticised what they see as lacklustre efforts to help people give up the habit.

"There's huge amounts of money being pushed into persuading people to take up smoking, very little on helping people to give up smoking," said Dr John Moore Gillan, from the British Lung Foundation.

Hard to stop

Brian Jones, a counsellor with Quitline, a charity which advises people on how to quit, said: "I think that when you start at quite a young age, you think 'I'll only smoke for a few years, then I'll give it up.'

"But you find that the longer you continue smoking, the harder it is to give up."

There are several killer diseases which are either caused or worsened by smoking.