US STATE attorneys general said yesterday they were ready to walk away from tobacco negotiations if the industry refused to be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and punished for past wrongdoing.

Mississippi Attorney General Mr Mike Moore said that talks would continue but that negotiations have grown very contentious.

Mr Moore said the last two days of talks have been "rocky, hard, tough, brutal, sometimes mean, and today was one of those days".

Mr Moore said emphatically that the attorneys general would walk away from the table if the following three demands were not met: Punishment for past wrongdoing, liability for compensatory and punitive damages and agreement on FDA regulation of nicotine as a drug.

"If we don't get it, we're going home and we're going to try our cases, said Moore, whose state is one of 38 suing cigarette companies to recover the costs of treating diseases allegedly caused by smoking.

"This industry ought to be treated like every other industry in America. They ought to be liable for compensatory damages in the future and they ought to be liable for punitive damages in the future," Mr Moore said. "We also believe the FDA ought to regulate nicotine as a drug."

Mr Moore said the attorneys general would never agree to any immunity for the industry.