The Welsh assembly does not have the power to ban smoking

Mrs Morgan told the House of Commons that banning smoking in enclosed public places would be the biggest step forward in public health for years.

She said it would also protect non-smokers from the effects of second-hand smoke.

Mrs Morgan's bill will not become law due to a lack of parliamentary time.

The Private Members Bill, Smoking in Public Places (Wales) has cross-party support, although only four Welsh Labour and one Plaid Cymru MP were in the chamber to hear her opening speech.

Tory MP Eric Forth questioned why around half of the bill's supporters had so far failed to arrive to support it.

The bill would fall on Friday unless 40 MPs - the quorum in the Commons - were present to vote on it.

Mrs Morgan told MPs: "Despite all the efforts of successive governments, the pain and the grief and the loss caused by smoking still continues.

The assembly has powers for health promotion but it can't deliver the policy if promotion fails Sir George Young MP

"It has been the great invisible tragedy of modern industrial societies and particularly so in Wales.

"If we want a healthy nation, in which every citizen has the best chance of a long and healthy life, we must continue to look for new ways of tackling the problem.

"This Bill is one of them."

She said it was not forcing people to quit, but it would stop their smoke from affecting other people.

'Demand'

Conservative North West Hampshire MP Sir George Young said it was "slightly odd" the assembly could not ban smoking.

"The assembly has powers for health promotion in Wales and it can therefore promote smoke free public places but it can't deliver the policy if promotion fails," he said.

If this bill reaches the statute book it won't solve the problem of smoking in Wales but it will help make the principality a better place in which to live and work."

Conwy MP Betty Williams told the House there was "overwhelming demand" from people for smoke-free places, but the government lacked the courage to tackle the "health timebomb" of secondary smoking.