BEIJING ~ China intends to ban all tobacco advertising by the beginning of 2011, the latest possible date required under an international treaty, state press reported this week.

The end of the advertising will be in line with China’s commitments to a World Health Organisation convention, the Xinhua news agency said, citing Jiang Yuan from the Health Ministry-affiliated State Tobacco Control Office.

China, home to one in three of the world’s smokers, ratified the WHO’s anti-smoking convention in 2005 and announced then it would eventually phase-out tobacco advertising.