Smokers are happily lighting up in Havana at the internationally renowned cigar festival.

Despite health warnings, some 400 million hand-rolled cigars are sold around the world each year.

Producers in Cuba claim that due to public smoking bans, cigar aficionados are spending more on finer smokes for the fewer opportunities they have to light up, and that has boosted their profits.

About 25 per cent of the market is controlled by Habanos SA, a joint venture between the socialist government and French-Spanish company Altadis.

But their products are banned in the United States under four-decade-old trade sanctions against Cuba's communist government.

Former leader Fidel Castro gave up smoking in 1986 and has said tobacco is a poison and boxes of cigars are best given to one's enemies.

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