YEREVAN (Novosti-Armenia), April 30—The Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sarkisian called on members of the government to stop smoking.

On Thursday, the Armenian government adopted a national program to fight smoking for 2010-2015. The program provides for extensive measures to inform the public about the diseases caused by smoking, to hold an anti-tobacco campaign, to improve the system of epidemiological control over the use of tobacco products and to settle international cooperation in the fight against smoking.

“I think that the government must set an example and gradually give up smoking,” Sarkisian said during a cabinet meeting.

According to him, the Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan who initiated the anti-smoking legislation, should be more demanding of her colleagues.

Hakobyan initiated the adoption of laws restricting the consumption of tobacco products, when she became a deputy.

Translated from Russian by YerevanReport.com