The top US cigarette makers violated racketeering laws, deceiving the public for years about the health hazards of smoking, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

Judge Gladys Kessler stopped short of ordering the companies to pay for a quit-smoking programme but said they must publish in newspapers and on their websites "corrective statements" on the adverse health effects and addictiveness of smoking and nicotine.

The government had asked the judge to make the companies pay $10bn (£5.3bn) for smoking cessation programmes in the action, launched under the Clinton presidency.