The sale of cigarettes in Scotland will be forced under the counter by 2010 after ministers at Holyrood announced yesterday proposals to ban their display in shops and other points of sale.

The move, announced by Shona Robison, the deputy health minister, is part of a five-point action plan on curbing smoking in Scotland, which became the first part of the United Kingdom to introduce a ban on lighting up in public places in March 2006.

The minister said that giving cigarettes pride of place in shops and other retail outlets sat uncomfortably with the drive to stop people, particularly the young, from smoking.

The move, which comes after the raising of the legal age for buying cigarettes in Scotland from 16 to 18, infuriated smokers' groups who accused the SNP administration of bullying and wanting smokers to feel bad about themselves.

The retail sector also reacted angrily, saying that it would do nothing to stop young people smoking while at the same time forcing up costs for small shopkeepers.

The prospect of a ban raises the probability that within the next two years in Scotland, cigarettes will either be sold under the counter, in the same way as some back street shops used to sell pornography, or sold from an unmarked cupboard behind a shop counter.

Ms Robison also announced that as part of the £9 million action plan, a ban on the sale of cigarettes in packets of ten will be considered in an attempt to discourage young smokers.

Statutory controls on the sale of tobacco are also to be updated in what was taken as a signal that ministers are giving consideration to moving towards a licensing scheme for premises selling cigarettes which would see licences withdrawn if retailers sold cigarettes to the underaged.

Ms Robison told MSPs that, although tobacco advertising was banned in Scotland in 2002, there were growing concerns that public displays of cigarettes in shops were hindering efforts to “denormalise” smoking. “There is evidence that displays stimulate impulse purchases among those not intending to buy cigarettes and, importantly, among smokers who are trying to give up,” she added.

The minister claimed that in countries, such as Canada, where tobacco display bans were in place, it had not had a dramatic impact on local businesses. “The important thing is that the removal of displays does change public perceptions of smoking.”

Smokers and non-smokers are still deeply divided on the smoking ban and about one in five Scots still smoke.

Recent figures show that, although the number of non-smokers is slowly growing, there is a hardcore of dedicated smokers who continue to oppose the ban and are increasingly wedded to their habit.

Smoking in Scotland is linked to 13,000 deaths a year and another 30,000 hospital admissions, with an annual cost to the NHS in Scotland of more than £200million.

The plan to ban cigarette displays in shops was welcomed by anti-smoking organisations, including ASH (Scotland), whose chief executive, Sheila Duffy, described promotional displays as “one of the last bastions of tobacco marketing”. She added: “Putting cigarettes out of sight will support smokers who are trying to quit.”

But Neil Rafferty, of the pro-smoking group Forest, said that the ban was about making smokers feel bad about themselves. He added: “The government wants smokers to feel immoral and to be shunned by the rest of society until they learn to behave themselves in a government-approved way. It is the bully state and it is about frightening people with exaggerated statistics and to mould them in a way the government approves.”

The Scottish Grocers' Federation claimed that a ban would result in significant and damaging cost to the convenience store sector.

John Drummond, its chief executive, said: “The display of tobacco products is essential to enable adult consumers to make an informed choice based on availability, price and brand from the wide range of tobacco products on the market. The cost of compliance with a tobacco display ban will place a significant financial burden on small retailers.”

Up-to-date figures on the number of Scots still smoking are not available, but smoking prevalence statistics from the Scottish Household Survey show a decline in the past few years. In 1999, 30.4 per cent of Scots smoked. In 2005 the figure was 26.2 per cent, falling in in 2006 to 25 per cent, and in the first three quarters of 2007 to 24.3 per cent.