MSPS will today hear calls to overturn the smoking ban, days after ministers vowed to eradicate the habit in Scotland.

Freedom to Choose Scotland – a pressure group that used to be based in a Leith pub – will call on Holyrood's petitions committee to review the legislation.

The group claims advances in extractor fan technology would allow pubs and other indoor public places to allow smoking without a causing a health risk to non-smokers.

The plea comes after The Herald's sister paper, the Sunday Herald, revealed plans to make Scotland smoke-free over the next 20 years. A Government target will aim to cut the number of smokers from 23% of adults to less than 5%, the official definition of "smoke-free".

But Belinda Cunnison, the convener of Freedom to Choose Scotland, said: "I believe the smoking ban should at least be modified.

"The ban was brought in because of the accepted view that passive smoking is impossible to eradicate using ventilation equipment. We don't accept that this is the case."

The pro-smoking petition appears to have little chance of success.