A U.S. public health official said Wednesday that the United States had threatened to use trade sanctions unless the tobacco industry was allowedsintosseveral Asian countries.

　　Dr. Gregory Connolly, director of the office for non-smoking and health in the Massachusetts public health department, said the U.S. had threatened Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Thailand with trade sanctions unless they opened up their markets to U.S. cigarettes and tobacco advertising.

　　"We are trading them cancer in the form of Camel cigarettes, Connolly told a world health conference. "That is something to be condemned and ashamed of."

　　Connolly did not say when the threats were made or by whom. U.S. tobacco company officials were not immediately available for comment.

　　American Cancer Society chief executive William Tipping said tobacco companies were "marketing death in the Third World," with the help of the U.S. government.

　　"American corporations are the carriers of an epidemic and our government has become a willing instrument for the enforced export of that epidemic, ' he said. "Those of us from America can only feel ashamed at our administration's role in undermining world health.'

　　Connolly said cigarettes are sold and advertised in the Third World without health warnings and with higher tar and nicotine content than in the same brands sold in the U.S. He said the U.S. realized US.5 billion in trade surplus from tobacco exports in 1988.

　　Later Wednesday, the American Cancer Society announced that its new Trade for Life campaign would help Thailand fight what it called U.S. moves to force open the Asian country's market to American tobacco companies.

　　The society said the U.S. late last year asked the General Agreement on Tariffs[4] and Trade (GATT) in Switzerland to investigate whether Thailand was unfairly discriminating against the import of U.S. cigarettes.

　　The society said the Thai government has resisted such imports, despite the threat of U.S. trade sanctions, because of fears it will lead to increases in tobacco-related diseases and deaths.

　　Tipping said the GATT case could set a precedent in allowing international tobacco companies to force their products and advertising on developing countries, he said the first goal of the US,000-a-year campaign was to bring the moral force of world opinion to bear on American trade policy.