French smokers were told to butt out Thursday as the government put into force its ban on puffing in workplaces, schools, airports, hospitals and other "closed and covered" public places.

In a country where many find it almost incomprehensible to enjoy a morning coffee without lighting up, the ban now in effect is the first phase of a new French law to eliminate smoking in most public places.

A student puts out a cigarette in a pavement ash tray before entering her school in Nice, southeastern France, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007. A ban on smoking in public spaces went into effect Thursday, a change that may alter the image of a country defined in part by its smoky cafes. France's 15 million smokers are now banned from lighting up in workplaces, schools, airports, hospitals and other "closed and covered" public places.
(Lionel Cironneau/ Associated Press)

The law is aimed at preventing some of the 66,000 smoking-related deaths each year in France.

So far, the ban has prohibited the country's 15 million smokers from smoking in airports, day cares, hospitals, youth centres and offices, but the real test will be how Frenchmen take to the next phase — an all-out ban on smoking in cafes, bars and restaurants beginning in January 2008.

In spite of concerns the French will lose their enduring image, polls show most are generally in favour of the regulations.

"It is a very good law," said Parisian Vincent Dosieres, who himself smokes. "I won't have the smell of cigarettes in the office."

Those caught smoking in defiance of the new law can get slapped with fines of 68 euros, while a fine of 50 euros will be issued to employers who look the other way.

One in three Frenchmen smoke, and passive smoking kills about 13 people a day in France, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has said.

France has the second-highest rate of smokers by population in Europe, behind Greece. Italy, Spain, Belgium, Britain and Ireland have already enacted broad smoking bans.

With files from the Associated Press