The Chinese government has ordered that skull-and-crossbones warning labels be placed on cigarette packs as a steps toward compliance with the global tobacco-control treaty, the Shanghai Daily reported Sept. 11.

Other warning labels will feature photos of diseased lungs, according to the Ministry of Health. The warnings will cover 30 percent of the surface of cigarette packs.

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control -- which China has signed and ratified, but the U.S. has not -- calls for countries to put the warning labels on cigarettes by 2009 and ban tobacco ads within five years. China has already announced that tobacco ads will be banned by 2011.

China is the world's leading tobacco producer and has the most smokers -- more than 350 million.