"Obesity is a time bomb for New Zealand and the Pacific," Prime Minister Helen Clark said at the opening of the World Health Organization's annual regional meeting in Auckland.

Clark, a former health minister, said chronic diseases, including those caused by obesity, are plaguing both rich and poor countries across the region.

Globally, 1 billion people are overweight or obese, according to WHO.

"It is posing huge challenges to our health systems, as we grapple with increasing rates of the associated diabetes, renal and eye disease and joint problems," she added. "The scale of these consequential problems is likely to get worse before it gets better."

WHO statistics show that non-communicable diseases _ mainly heart disease, stroke and cancer _ are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths among the Western Pacific region's 1.8 billion people.

Over the next decade, deaths from chronic diseases are expected to jump 20 percent, with diabetes-related deaths alone increasing 51 percent, said Anders Norstrom, WHO's Geneva-based acting director general.

"Most of this can be prevented through healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoidance of tobacco products," he said.

Clark also stressed how tobacco control can improve a country's overall health. New Zealand has banned smoking in bars and all public places over the past two years, and surveys have indicated that 63 percent of smokers themselves approve of the measures.

"Smoking causes utterly preventable death, disease and disability," Clark told the delegates. "It cheats our people of the good health to which we all have a right. It is a scourge the world could do without."

Tobacco is responsible for more than 3,000 deaths a day in the Asia-Pacific, which has the highest proportion of men who smoke. It also is home to more than 400 million adult smokers and has the fastest growing number of children and female smokers, according to WHO.

China has more than 300 million adult smokers and is the world's top tobacco producer, Norstrom said.

Bird flu is also expected to be one of the top items discussed for the third straight year at the WHO meeting, which helps set the organization's strategic agenda. The H5N1 virus has killed at least 144 people since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, and experts worry more fatalities will emerge as the cooler months approach.

"We must remain vigilant and prepared," Norstrom said. "All member states need to develop, strengthen and maintain core surveillance and response capacities."

Associated Press reporter Ray Lilley in Auckland contributed to this report.