China will have more than 1 million new lung cancer patients a year by 2025 if smoking and pollution are not brought under control, state media reported.

The figure will be the highest in the world, the China Daily said, quoting health experts who cited

World Health Organization figures.

China had 120,000 new lung cancer patients in the past five years, according to the Ministry of Health, the paper reported.

China already has more than one third of the world's estimated 1.3 billion cigarette smokers, but lung cancer rates also are being fueled by harmful emissions such as automobile exhaust, as car ownership grows in the rapidly developing country.

"The occurrence of lung cancer is closely related to motor vehicle exhausts," the paper quoted Sun Yan, a cancer expert with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as saying.

China already loses more than 1 million people per year due to a range of tobacco-related illnesses such as lung cancer and heart disease, according to the WHO.

More than two thirds of Chinese adult are smokers and surveys have found that more than half of Chinese smokers are unaware that it causes lung cancer.

Fearing a health crisis, China's government has moved to discourage smoking. But with cigarette sales taxes providing a key revenue source in the world's largest tobacco market, authorities have stopped short of aggressive action.

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