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Saying he can relate to people who are struggling to kick cigarettes, President Barack Obama signed into law legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration strong new powers over the way tobacco products are made and sold.

"Today, despite decades of lobbying and advertising by the tobacco industry, we passed a law to help protect the next generation of Americans from growing up with a deadly habit that so many of our generation have lived with," Obama said at bill-signing ceremony Monday at the White House.

Passed overwhelmingly by the House and Senate earlier this month, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act requires companies that make tobacco products to register with the FDA and provide the agency with a detailed product list. It would assess user fees on manufacturers to pay for the cost of FDA tobacco regulation.

Obama said the measure will help stop cigarette companies from targeting young people, crucial because almost 90% of all smokers began before they turned 18.

"I know, I was one of these teenagers," Obama said. "So I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it's been with you for a long time."

The law will force cigarette packs to carry graphic warnings and forbid the use of terms like "mild" and "low tar" in tobacco advertisements. By July 2011, the top 50% of the front and rear panels of cigarette boxes will consist of warnings.

The FDA will be able to closely regulate tobacco products, with tobacco manufacturers and importers required to submit information to the government about ingredients and additives in tobacco products. By October, candy, fruit and spice flavors will be banned from cigarettes.

Other provisions are aimed at lessening the appeal of smoking to young people. Tobacco companies won't be allowed to sponsor sporting events using product brand names, and they will be prohibited from selling or giving away clothing featuring cigarette brands or logos.

Obama said young people are "aggressively targeted as customers" and "exposed to a constant and insidious barrage of advertising where they live, where they learn and where they play."

The bill was opposed by lawmakers in North Carolina and the state's two biggest tobacco companies - Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) and Lorillard Inc. (LO). Altria Group, Inc. (MO) - the U.S.'s biggest tobacco producer - backed the bill, however.

-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; henry.pulizzi@dowjones.com

(Fawn Johnson contributed to this report.)