MIAMI (Reuters) - Vector Group Ltd. on Tuesday said its tobacco unit plans to sell new cigarettes this year that have reduced a cancer-causing agent in the smoke to below carcinogenic levels.

Miami-based Vector, the parent company of discount-cigarette maker Liggett Group, said the new cigarettes--with reduced polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds--are lighted, smoked and taste the same as conventional cigarettes. PAHs are considered by many in the health community to be the most severe cancer-causing agent in cigarettes, Vector said. Liggett last month said it had developed a cigarette with virtually no nicotine, the addictive stimulant found in conventional tobacco. ``While there is no such thing as a safe cigarette, we believe we've eliminated what the health community considers to be the most serious cancer causing agents with these developments,'' Bennett LeBow, chairman and chief executive officer of Vector Group, said in a statement. ``We believe that these historical developments may address the two greatest concerns of the health community about smoking--cancer causing agents and addiction,'' he said.

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