Cyprus has the lowest suicide rate in Europe, where overall one EU citizen takes his or her own life every nine minutes.

Around 60,000 EU citizens take their own life each year. An EU citizen is ten times as likely to die by suicide than to die of HIV/AIDS.

In the EU, at least one child under 14 dies by suicide every 48 hours.

In 2006, approximately 20 young adults aged 15-29 committed suicide every day; among those aged 30-59, approximately 87 people died every day by suicide; and 56 people aged over 60 took their own lives every day.

Broken down by country, Cyprus has 2.4 suicides per 100,000 of the population each year. In Greece the rate is 3.1 per 100,000 and in Malta 4.2.

The EU average, according to most recent statistics was 11.3 per 100,000 in all age groups, although a decrease has been noted overall in the last decade.

The highest rates were in Lithuania at 28.9 people per 100,000. In Hungary it was 23.2 and in Slovenia 22.0.

"Gender differences in suicide rates remain striking, with males more likely to die by suicide than females," said the report.

It said mental health problems were more common in areas of deprivation and poor mental health is consistently associated with unemployment, less education, low income, or material standard of living, in addition to poor physical health and adverse life events.

Depression is a major cause of suicide in European older people. Rates of suicide and self-harm are approximately 26 per cent higher in Europeans over 65 than among the 25-64 age groups, and in 90 per cent of EU countries the suicide rate is highest in those over 75.

The mental health figures were released yesterday in Brussels at the High Level Conference launching the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-Being.

"Today, we in Europe have raised our voices and spoken out about the devastating effect that mental illness has on society," said EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.

"This Pact is a symbol of our determination in Europe to take up the challenge and deliver action in our different areas of responsibility and across the health, education and labour sectors. We need to act in partnership because mental health concerns us all."

The conference was the first to bring together ministers, experts, patients, health professionals, researchers and high profile personalities and other stakeholders to agree future joint actions to improve mental health in Europe.

A statement from the Commission said the Pact was a call for partnership action and a pledge to work together and focus on five key areas: prevention of suicide and depression; mental health in youth and education; mental heath in workplace settings; mental health in older people; combating stigma and social exclusion.

It said an estimated 50 per cent of mental disorders have their onset during adolescence and therefore organisations working with youth need to be equipped to recognise symptoms and react quickly.

"In our ageing society there is also a strong need to and plan for the increasing prevalence of mental illness in the elderly population both for age related mental illness such as dementia and depression due to weakened social support," said the Commission.