JUBILANT US state attorneys general have trounced the tobacco industry with a record breaking $368.5 billion (£244 billion) settlement, but whether the landmark pact can remain intact is far from certain.

After the celebrations end and the dust settles, the top state legal officers will have to watch their hard won work being picked apart by a White House task force and then by Congress.

President Clinton, who is hosting the annual summit of industrialised nations in Denver, had not yet had a chance to review the agreement, White House spokesman Mr Mike McCurry said at the weekend.

"We are just now beginning the process of evaluating the document based on what we know about it. I think it's going to be quite some time before we can say anything definitively about our views," he said.

The agreement is being sharply criticised as inadequate by some prominent health figures as well as by Minnesota Attorney General, Mr Hubert Humphrey III, who has been at odds with his colleagues during the three months of negotiations.

Former US Surgeon General Mr C. Everett Koop called the $368.5 billion settlement "paltry" and warned that there were serious flaws in the pact.

A fierce opponent of the tobacco industry who succeeded in forcing health warnings to be put on cigarette packets, Mr Koop said in a CNN interview that the agreement was far from being a great triumph for the attorneys general, health advocates and the antitobacco lobby.

"They are talking about it as a marvellous achievement. I would put it in the sense of a marvellous effort. The achievement is yet to come," he said.

"Whether that effort becomes an achievement depends a lot on Congress."

He feared the agreement would be watered down on Capitol Hill and that tobacco industry lawyers would find loopholes to exploit.

In Minnesota, Mr Humphrey told a news conference on Friday that he fully intended to bring his lawsuit to trial against the industry. "The agreement as I understand it is woefully inadequate," he said.

He is one of the 40 attorneys general that sued the industry to recoup Medicaid costs of sick smokers.

The National Association of Attorneys General is currently holding its annual spring meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and it is expected that Mr Humphrey will raise objections to the settlement with his colleagues there.

The monetary package would be used to settle the state Medicaid suits, individual smoking suits and certain class actions.

Under the accord, the industry would also agree to be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, would sharply curb advertising and marketing of cigarettes and be subjected to penalties if youth smoking were not reduced.

Although the agreement marks the first time the tobacco industry has agreed to make health care, regulatory and litigation concessions, criticisms of the accord will add to the concerns of the White House and members of Congress who greeted Friday's announcement with caution.

"The Constitution does not have any provision for the Congress to delegate (decision making) to a private group in a secret meeting," House of Representatives Speaker, Mr Newt Gingrich, said.

"We'll be glad to look at what they think their settlement is... Whether or not that becomes law will be a function of the congressional committees," he said.

Some of the harshest critics of the industry, including California Democratic Representative, Mr Henry Waxman and New Jersey Democratic Senator, Mr Frank Lautenberg, said the accord was a "positive first step" but they might try to make it tougher.

"While we invite improvement of what we've done... if the fundamental steps that we have taken with respect particularly to ensuring no more youth access, no more marketing to children, and to ensure the full FDA authority over nicotine... if that is compromised, we...will continue to fight in our litigation in our respective courts," said Washington State Attorney General, Ms Christine Gregoire.