In the streets of Tirana, the capital of Albania, it is common to see 17-year-old girls dressed in red hats and cowboy t-shirts distributing Marlboros and other Philip Morris cigarettes.

While distributing cigarettes to minors is illegal in most countries, including Albania, the practice of young girls strolling the streets giving out cigarettes continues to be common in developing nations.

"As we start to squeeze them here in terms of not selling to children, they need replacement smokers," said Mohammad N. Akhter, executive director of the American Public Health Association in Washington. "They're finding these substitute smokers in the third world."

According to a study conducted by the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 percent of the children in Latin America and the Caribbean were offered free cigarettes by tobacco company representatives in 1999 and 2000. In Russia, 17 percent of the children surveyed said they had been given free cigarettes, while in Jordan, 25 percent of the minors polled received free cigarettes.

Based on the study's findings, the WHO has accused Philip Morris and other tobacco companies of enticing children to smoke. While Philip Morris has Marlboro Girls distributing cigarettes, British American Tobacco adds sugar and honey to some of the cigarettes it sells in the South Pacific. Health officials said the sweetness removes the acrid taste of cigarettes that is unappealing to children.

"This is the right time for the tobacco industry to seduce children overseas," said Vera da Costa e Silva, director of the WHO's tobacco program. "They are looking to increase the number of smokers in developing countries and elsewhere abroad because in the United States they are losing their market."

Philip Morris said that the company has strict rules about distributing free cigarettes to minors. But Remi Calvert, a spokesman for Philip Morris' international division, added that in some countries the company promotes and distributes its cigarettes through independent companies, which are difficult to monitor.

"I'm not telling you that our policy is 100 percent respected around the world," said Calvert. "It should be, but we're not perfect."

He added that any distributor that fails to follow company policy is immediately fired. "We're trying to improve," Calvert said. "We have a very, very clear policy. Perhaps not everyone is following it."

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