Like many other developing countries, Cambodia is taking the brunt of the aggressive marketing techniques of big cigarette companies. As cigarette consumption falls in the industrialised countries, the multinationals are looking to countries like Cambodia as expanding markets for the future.

Chea Savoeun, Minister of Cults and Religion, explains: "Cambodia is being seen as a new country. In the Khmer Rouge period there was nothing - no currency, no habitation, no transport. Now our Cambodia is developing, therefore everything - every business, every import - is new. The foreign companies want to introduce the famous products from their country, such as Alain Delon cigarettes, into our country. Everything is new - two decades ago there was nothing!"

But these companies face a challenge from an unusual quarter there. Religion, in the form of Buddhism, is fighting back. The people of Cambodia are only just emerging from years of war and repression. With this new-found period of peace, there's a resurgence of traditional arts and culture once thought of as lost forever. Religion, which had previously been suppressed, has re-emerged.

And while cigarettes may travel the world, health messages do not. Half of all smokers may eventually be killed by their cigarettes. World Health Organisation figures show that by the year 2030, there will be 10 million tobacco-related deaths every year. Most of these will occur in developing countries, an epidemic of heart and lung disease and cancer that will kill more people than HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and childhood diseases combined.

Dr Kaing Sor of Preabat Norodom Sihanouk Hospital describes the effects he comes across: "What we're seeing at the hospital is an increase in diseases like chronic bronchitis and other chronic infections, and the main cause is smoking. Because cigarettes weaken the lungs they make you much more susceptible to many diseases including TB."

Buddhist monks are now spearheading the campaign to persuade Cambodians to give up tobacco - a tough assignment in a country with one of the highest rates of smoking in the world and smoking even prevalent in the Buddhist monasteries. There are no health warnings on tobacco products in Cambodia, and no bans on sales to minors.

Soeun Than, Chief Monk at Samrong Andet Pagoda outside Phnomh Penh, explains the religious standpoint: "There were no cigarettes around during the Buddha's lifetime. But he did say you should avoid addictive or harmful substances. When you smoke, you not only hurt yourself you're also hurting other people. So, avoid it!"

Dr Yel Daravuth, who works for the Adventist Development & Relief Agency (ADRA), says that there are special problems in a country like Cambodia: "Smoking is an enormous problem that needs to be tackled on many fronts. Without the laws they have in Europe for example, our people are the target of some fierce advertising campaigns by big cigarette companies - it's something you no longer see in the more developed countries."

ADRA works with key groups of people to get across its anti-smoking message. As part of their training, student teachers are given intensive health education on the dangers of tobacco use. ADRA is also working with Buddhist monks to persuade them to quit smoking. While some of these young men will remain monks for life, most will return to their communities once they've completed their education.

ADRA has adapted an Australian anti-smoking course, Seven Steps to Freedom, into a programme called Khmer Quit Now for Cambodia. The campaign to persuade the 55,000 monks to serve as an example by quitting smoking began at the Samrong Andet Pagoda. One young monk describes the pressures that lead people to take up smoking: "Taking up smoking is something you don't necessarily choose to do as an individual, you're pressured into doing it by people around you. Society tries to show you it's good to smoke - if you take up smoking you'll supposedly gain all kinds of qualities - so I went along with it and started to smoke."

British American Tobacco (BAT) is the biggest multinational in the Cambodian cigarette market. In five years, it has already gained 40% of the market with its locally made ARA brand. BAT denies targeting children and young people with its advertising, but still sponsors pop concerts.

Chief Monk Soeun Than says that advertising cigarettes is wrong: "Advertisements tell lies - they're not honest. Cigarettes should be advertised as being dangerous, just like HIV. The most important thing is to have the determination from the mind and heart to resist and be disciplined. Smoking not only kills us but it kills others too. So in the next life it leads to a lower condition."

BAT has encouraged farmers to give up growing staple foods and concentrate on tobacco. They help the farmers with technical advice and improved curing methods, and growing millions of saplings to replace the trees cut down to cure the tobacco. But of course it'll take years for the sapling to grow into trees. And even that won't replace ecosystems lost to tobacco growing.

Another problem is corruption. As even Cambodian customs officials admit, four-fifths of the cigarettes Cambodia imports are openly smuggled into neighbouring countries. Dr Lim Thai Pheang, National Centre for Health Promotion, puts it bluntly: "We have a choice: either we have health or we have tobacco. The government may get money from the sale of cigarettes today, but the cost tomorrow, in terms of health will be far greater." His organisation does its best to campaign against smoking, but they can't match the huge spending on advertising by the cigarette companies.

In short, it's going to be up to the monks to educate the next generation about the dangers of smoking. But the odds against success are stacked high by the tobacco companies. As one monk puts it, "I have attended the stopping smoking course. I have learned the cigarette contains a lot of poisons and nicotine itself contains 4,000 toxins. Please - all believers of all generations - please give up smoking. And other countries who are helping Cambodia to develop are also importing cigarettes, this is wrong they're giving the people illness and disease. Any cigarette maker trying to help the people should understand that the cigarettes don't help people at all, they only give them disease and that's it."

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