Kuala Lumpur - A government-sponsored survey revealed Wednesday that the number of Malaysian smokers continues to rise despite increasing prices and campaigns on the health risks of smoking, official reports said.

The survey, which was conducted in 2006, showed that there were more than 2 million smokers in the country.

A total of 467,000 smokers were aged between 13 and 17, out of which almost 10 per cent were female, said health director in the northeastern Kelantan state Lila Mohamed Meeran.

Malaysians spent a whopping 8.59 million ringgit (2.6 million dollars) on 33 million sticks of cigarettes daily in the year, the survey revealed.

"It is a worrying situation. The Health Ministry will strive to counter the tobacco threat by getting smokers to kick the habit," Lila told the official Bernama news agency.

In 2007, government counts of the number of smokers vary from 4 million to 6 million.

Each year, some 10,000 people in Malaysia die from smoking-related ailments, according to government statistics. (dpa)