The study was based on a survey of 1,105 teens aged 12 and 17 who live in Minnesota. The poll was taken last November and December, about six months after the state ended its youth anti-tobacco campaign.

According to the study, 53 percent of the teens surveyed did not strongly disagree with the statement that they would smoke a cigarette in the next year. The percentage was 10 percent higher than a similar survey conducted last summer.

"This is pretty bad news and potentially an early harbinger of what we're going to see in other states as well," said Dr. David Nelson, senior scientific advisor in the CDC's office of smoking and health and one of the authors of the study.

Nelson said the study's findings indicate how quickly adolescent smoking behaviors can change without properly funded anti-tobacco campaigns.

The U.S. has set a goal of cutting smoking in half by 2010. Previous studies have shown that the majority of adults who are regular cigarette smokers began smoking during adolescence.

The study appears in the April 16 edition of CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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