Deputy Director of Health Leung Ting-hung said tobacco control officers had issued four summonses to people flouting existing anti-smoking laws over the past two months and they would begin to enforce the beefed-up legislation as soon as they had the power to do so on Monday morning.

'In the past two months, we have also strengthened publicity and education efforts to ensure people understand the new legal requirements,' Dr Leung said.

'On January 1, when the ban in other indoor areas will become effective, we will take follow-up action when we receive complaints. We will make some unannounced visits to certain areas,' he said, adding that his staff would enforce the law 'in a polite manner'.

All restaurants, markets, workplaces and 1,192 of the city's 1,447 parks will be smoke-free from Monday.

But pubs, bathhouses and massage and mahjong parlours have been given a temporary exemption from the new law until June 30, 2009 if they have applied for a deferral.

The Tobacco Control Office has set up a hotline open from 9am to 10pm, Monday to Saturday.

The office, which has 60 tobacco control officers, will get a further 40 officers.

A bar owner in Central who has not applied for the deferral because the pub has an outdoor area said she had no intention of ordering her smoking clientele to move outside as soon as the clock struck 12.

'What do they expect? That I will shout out at midnight that everyone must stop smoking or move outdoors? No way. That's so much hassle. We will start the next business day,' she said.

Christine Wong Wang, senior medical and health officer at the Tobacco Control Office, said she expected the ban to be implemented smoothly, but admitted inspectors might find it difficult to catch smokers red-handed.

'Because of the nature of smoking, our inspectors cannot be right there and cannot go to the scene immediately,' she said.

Offenders would be issued summonses and magistrates would decide if they should be fined HK$5,000 for smoking or HK$10,000 for failing to provide identification details, but fixed-penalty fines are being considered.

Richard Feldman, chairman of Mimosa Group which runs seven restaurants and bars including Al's Diner in Lan Kwai Fong, said all but one of his establishments, which had applied for the deferral, would become smoke-free from midnight.

'Most of the time on New Year's Eve, it's our regulars who are there and they know all about the smoking ban. I won't be doing a countdown to midnight, 'Five, four, three, two, one - put out your cigarettes', but the ban will be in place after midnight,' he said.

However, he queried why that night had been chosen to bring in the ban. 'Purely from an operational point of view, it's really not the best evening to do this,' he said.