American Indians and Alaska natives are more likely to smoke than any other group in the United States, with 40 percent of adults defined as smokers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week. People of Chinese descent were the least likely to smoke, with just 12 percent reporting that they had smoked a cigarette in the past month, said the agency survey, which was released on Thursday.

Among adults, 25 percent of blacks said they were smokers, compared with nearly 26 percent of whites and 26.5 percent of the population overall. Among youths, 16 percent of whites and 7 percent of blacks said they smoked, compared with 13.8 percent overall.

The report, noted that smoking "remains the foremost preventable cause of death in the United States." Each year about 440,000 persons die from illnesses attributed to smoking, the report said. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/na...pagewanted=all

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