US reports have suggested that the health warnings, which would be compulsory on both cigarette packaging and in cigarette advertisement, would be the most significant change in more than 25 years.

The Food and Drug Administration is planning to select nine actual images and text to be used by the end of June next year. Thirty-six options have been put forward and the general public is being invited to comment on the designs.

It is planned that the rules will then come into force in September 2012.

FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg described the new rules as “a crucial step toward reducing the tremendous toll of illness and death caused by tobacco use”.

“When the rule takes effect, the health consequences of smoking will be obvious every time someone picks up a pack of cigarettes. This is a concrete example of how FDA’s new responsibilities for tobacco product regulation can benefit the public’s health.”

Around 440,000 people die in the US every year from tobacco-related diseases, making it the single biggest cause of premature and preventale death in the country. A third of all cancer deaths in the US are also due to tobacco.