German consumer affairs minister Horst Seehofer has reportedly announced that draft legislation is being prepared to partially ban smoking in public places across the country from as early as 2007.

According to the minister, the ban in public places would cover buildings such as hospitals, care homes and administrative sites, but may not cover pubs and restaurants.

However, speaking to the newspaper Tagesspiegel am Sonntag, the president of the German Physicians' Association, Jörg-Dietrich Hoppe, criticised Seehofer’s proposal.

Hoppe urged German politicians not to do “just half a job”, saying that the smoking ban needed to be “consistent” and that including pubs and restaurants in the smoking ban would be a must.

Passive smoking statistics recently released in Germany have fuelled the non-smoking debate and strengthened calls for Seehofer’s proposed partial ban. Germany remains one of a small number of EU countries without legislation for a nationwide ban on smoking.

According to recent World Health Organisation research, approximately one in three Germans aged over 15 smokes regularly – making Germany a country with some of the heaviest smokers in Europe and well above the UK (26 per cent) and France (25.4 per cent).