HOME Secretary Jack Straw is being urged to ban alcopops - by the Salvation Army.

They are calling on young readers of the Army's Kids Alive weekly paper to write to the Blackburn MP asking him to take the drinks off the shelves.

And the paper will deliver a message in a bottle to Mr Straw in person later in the year calling for a complete ban.

Kids Alive editor Ken Nesbitt said: "If alcohol is supposed to taste good, why do drinks manufacturers need to disguise it in otherwise harmless soft drinks? "The campaign aims to show that 'spiking' soft drinks with alcohol will not be the manufacturers' soft option for much longer."

The news comes as the Lancashire and Greater Manchester Regional Council on Alcohol welcomes a supermarket chain's plan to ban the sale of the controversial drinks from its 1,200 stores.

Chief executive Liz Smith said: "At last, one retailer has had the courage to put the welfare of our children before profit.

"The Co-op deserves a medal for having the guts to say they do not want to be involved with selling these drinks."

The Home Secretary has set up a ministerial group to look into the situation and promised it would demand swift action from the drinks industry.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.