"This is peanuts, but given the billions of transactions every day, this could still raise an immense income," he said.

Currently the EU budget is funded through a combination of import duties, value added tax revenues and direct contributions from member states--the so-called "Gross National Income resource," which is calculated according to wealth.

However, following a yearlong battle over the current seven-year budget, agreed on last December, it was decided that the way in which the EU is funded should be changed, with new proposals expected by 2008/2009.

A single "EU tax" has found support among many of the 25 EU governments, MEP's and the European Commission, the EU's executive arm. Other ideas include a tax on airline tickets and an extra levy on oil companies.

In Italy, the concept of a tax on texting was floated in the past, as a way to help offset the country's huge deficit, though it was flatly rejected by the outgoing government.

But Lamassoure argues that with billions of e-mails and texts sent around the world, it's a novel and simple way to raise funds from new technology.

"Exchanges between countries have ballooned, so everyone would understand that the money to finance the EU should come from the benefits engendered by the EU," he said.

The outcome of the vote in other regions appeared to follow expectations.

Prodi's candidate in Sicily, the sister of a murdered anti-Mafia magistrate, looked set to lose the gubernatorial election to centre-right incumbent Salvatore Cuffaro, according to early results.

Rome's popular centre-left mayor Walter Veltroni was also comfortably ahead in his bid for re-election, as was the centre-left incumbent mayor of Turin, Sergio Chiamparino, according to the Piepoli poll.

The centre-left candidate was also ahead in Naples, but that race may also go to a second round of voting, which is due to take place on June 11-12.

"Europe does not have to make new concessions on agriculture" for the World Trade Association's (WTO) Doha round to be completed successfully, he said.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has suggested that the Union could improve an offer to open up its agricultural market if its trading partners were also ready to make concessions.

"Mandelson must stick to his mandate," Bussereau said, adding that the last "offer of October 28 is already the limit for France".

WTO talks in the Mexican resort of Cancun collapsed in September 2003 after poor countries had protested against farm subsidies in rich countries and high tariffs levied on agriculture imports from developing nations.

The latest round of WTO negotiations, known as the Doha round, is aimed at increasing international commerce by removing trade barriers to boost poor countries.

Negotiations are currently deadlocked with the US under pressure to cut its subsidies to farmers, while the EU is being asked to make deeper cuts in the tariffs imposed on imported farm products.

Trading partners had been hoping to finalise the round this year.

US officials have described France's hard line as unhelpful.

Austrian Agriculture Minister Josef Proell, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said that the EU had already made enough concessions and that it was know up to others to make offers.

"The main focus is on the USA to show flexibility," he said at an informal meeting of EU farm ministers in Austria. "But we are certainly not aiming at failure of the negotiations."

However he said it was unacceptable for "progress always to be made solely at the cost of the European Union."

US officials have said that Crawford Falconer, New Zealand's WTO ambassador who has been chairing agricultural talks in Geneva, is preparing to submit the new outlines of a trade round deal in the middle of next month.

But that will leave precious little time to sign, seal and deliver a global package to dismantle world trade barriers by the end of the year.

The US government would have just months to get a WTO deal through Congress before it loses its "fast-track" trading authority at the start of July 2007.

The ban will extend to public transport and public buildings, with places that offer services to children the main concern, Zhang said.

In his meeting with World Health Organization Director-General Lee Jong-Wook in 2004, Premier Wen Jiabao said a non-smoking Games is on top of the agenda for China's preparations for a green Olympics.

The ministry has learned from the practice and experience of previous Games hosts, Zhang acknowledged.

The concept of a "non-smoking" Olympic Games, initiated in 1988,was put into practice in Barcelona in 1992.

Considering the country's large smoking population, Zhang warned that China faces many obstacles to overcome in hosting a non-smoking Olympics.

The largest tobacco producer and consumer in the world, China reports about one million deaths from smoking a year, and the figure is expected to reach three million by 2050.

The spread of smoking results in the heavy burden of providing medical treatment for illnesses like lung cancer, said Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of the China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"It is society who has to foot the cost of medical treatment made by tobacco promotion," she said, underscoring that tobacco control needs the participation of NGOs and people from all walks of life, she said.

She called for a prompt implementation of the national action plan on tobacco control with priority placed on teenage education and publicity.

The expert also appealed for promulgating national laws to ban smoking in public places and to beef up early detection and treatment of lung cancer.

"The current consumption of cigarettes will see an increase in deaths from lung cancer in the next 20 to 30 years, apart from other causes like the aging of the population, greater industrialization and deterioration of environment," she continued.

Unfortunately, China is still slow in detecting lung cancer and most patients do not receive the necessary surgery in time, said Qiao Youlin, researcher with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, who specializes in cancer treatment.

"The high cost of early detection methods of lung cancer prevents early diagnosis, especially in rural areas," he told Xinhua.

The new cooperative rural medicare system promoted by the government in the past few years has only provided farmers with about 50 yuan (6.25 U.S. dollars) for healthcare, but the screening costs about 300 yuan (37.5 U.S. dollars), he said.

"Therefore, China's treatment of lung cancer still lags far behind developed nations," said Qiao, adding that the five-year survival rate of lung cancer patients in developed nations is 15 percent, but less than 10 percent in China.