Britons are drinking themselves to death at a faster rate than people anywhere else in western Europe, a study has found.

New research shows liver cirrhosis deaths are soaring in the UK while falling in other European countries.

Experts believe the trend is an indictment of Britain's drinking culture.

A report last month called 'Over the Limit' by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Public Health Group highlighted the problem of alcohol abuse in the region.

The Government figures show Yorkshire and Humber had a 46.5 per cent increase in alcohol related deaths between 2000 and 2004 - the biggest in the country.

In Bradford alcohol-related deaths account for the deaths of 11.5 people per 100,000, the fourth highest in the region and above the national average of 10.9.

The latest research in the Lancet medical journal, found in the 1980s and 1990s, cirrhosis death rates for men more than doubled in Scotland, and rose by over two thirds in England and Wales.

The numbers of women dying increased by almost a half in both regions over the same period.

The figures were compared with those for 12 other European countries - Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Denmark.

Although some still had high rates, these countries had experienced a 20 per cent to 30 per cent decline since the early 1970s.

Total recorded alcohol consumption doubled in the UK between 1960 and 2002, the researchers point out.

In contrast alcohol has become less popular in the mainly wine-drinking countries of southern Europe, driving down the reduction in cirrhosis deaths on the continent.

Professor Robin Room, of the University of Stockholm, said: "While beverage type and pattern of drinking might both affect the risk of developing cirrhosis, there is no doubt that the cumulative amount of alcohol consumed has a primary role.

"The UK Government has turned a blind eye to the problem and has failed to make the reduction of the population's alcohol intake a policy goal."

Yvonne Oliver, chief executive of The Ripple Drugs Project, a Bradford-based drug and alcohol service, said she believed it was down to differences in culture between Britain and other European countries.

"I think we have different problems to do with lifestyle, the pace we work at, family structures and cultural differences," she said.

"People in Britain compensate for a lack of intimate relationships. For a lot of people their family is the pub and the people that they go to the pub with.

"You do not get that in other European countries where you are more likely to see families out together."

She also said media attention on problems with drug abuse meant problems with alcohol were often overlooked.

"Alcohol is the legal drug but it is the bigger health problem," she said.