Gas suppliers are refusing to fund a multi-million pound TV advertising campaign to cut deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning, the Echo can reveal.

The firms will reject a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) study that concluded up to £25 million must be spent to achieve a target of a 20 per cent reduction in deaths by 2010.

Instead, they will propose a dramatically slimmed-down strategy - centred on leaflets placed in doctors' surgeries and advice on websites - to persuade people to replace ageing equipment.

No figure is available yet for the cost of the initiative, to be agreed by the Energy Retail Association (ERA), the trade body for gas suppliers, at a meeting later this month.

But it is likely to be far cheaper than £25 million over ten years - renewing calls for suppliers to face a compulsory levy to force them to tackle carbon monoxide deaths.

That proposal was made by health and safety chiefs as long ago as 2001, but time has run out for legislation to be introduced before the next election, probably next spring.

The Northern Echo launched its Silent Killer campaign following the death of Anne Brennan, a 19-year-old student from Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, in digs in Durham City in 1995.

Some new laws are expected next year, including compulsory "gas safety declarations" after any servicing, better testing to identify dangerous fumes and the extension of regulations to cover non-domestic premises.

But an HSE working group of gas-fitters, local authorities, landlords and safety groups also recommended a huge advertising campaign to make people aware of the threat.

However, Russell Hamblin-Boone, the ERA's head of communication, said that "better awareness and better equipment" were already reaping rewards.

The number of deaths had fallen from 31 at the start of the decade to 12 in 2002/03, he said, although the industry's target was zero.

Mr Hamblin-Boone said: "We do not believe that is something that will be achieved through a large amount of money being spent on adverts."

Mr Hamblin-Boone said advice could be given as gas suppliers visited homes for other reasons, on websites and through leaflets at doctors' surgeries and benefit offices.