McDONALD'S and other fast-food restaurants would offer diners free drugs to compensate for the risk of heart disease, under a plan proposed by cardiologists.

If burger joints offered cholesterol-lowering statins, customers would offset the unhealthy effects of a cheeseburger and milkshake, according to researchers at Imperial College London.

The pills could be placed beside the salt, pepper and tomato sauce to encourage people to pop one after their meal.

The suggestion is made in a paper by Dr Darel Francis, a cardiologist at Imperial's National Heart and Lung Institute, and colleagues published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

The idea was criticised by leading doctors who said the study could prompt even greater consumption of junk food and increasing the belief in ''a pill for every ill''.