Anti-smoking campaigners yesterday said they will force tobacco companies to admit that they have ''shamelessly'' tried to sell cigarettes to children.

The response comes after four tobacco giants began legal moves to discredit an official report recommending a bar on smoking in public places and a total ban on tobacco advertising.

Mr Clive Bates, from anti-smoking group ASH, said: ''We want to express our disgust. This is the last desperate attempt by the King Canutes of tobacco, trying to hold back the tide of fact and evidence about smoking.''

The tobacco companies, British American Tobacco, Gallaher, Imperial and Rothmans, applied for a judicial review of the report of the Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health.

Mr Bates said his organisation planned to scupper the attempt to discredit the report by publishing a dossier of evidence from court cases in the US.

''In it are some 1200 references or quotes which absolutely demonstrate that the tobacco industry has known of the dangers of smoking for many years and fudged the issue, denying the addiction of nicotine and shamelessly marketing their products at children,'' he said.