``Unless we take decisive action, tobacco will be responsible for two million deaths, 20 per cent of all deaths, in 2010,'' said Gro Harlem Brundtland yesterday, who took over in July as head of the UN Health agency.

Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, welcomed last month's decision by the European Union to ban almost all tobacco advertising by 2006.

``It should not be subsidised, advertised or glamorised,'' she said at a news conference. She called the EU move a landmark public health event with implications ``far beyond the EU border''.

Brundtland spoke to reporters after addressing the annual meeting of health officials from WHO's European region.