BERLIN (AFP) - The German government is considering a ban on the sale of cigarettes to minors, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reports in its Saturday edition.

The ministry for consumer protection is mulling a law that could impose fines on tobacconists selling cigarettes to children aged under 18 and on legal guardians of minors who allow their wards to smoke, the daily said.

The law would be part of a global anti-smoking plan to be thrashed out by the government after the summer break, the newspaper added.

Germany is one of the few European Union member states not to have a law banning smoking in public places, as required by a European resolution voted in 1989 that seeks to limit the negative health impacts of tobacco.