Tessa Jowell has urged the leisure industry to fight for a more flexible pub licensing system.

Asking business leaders to support her department's proposed relaxation of pub opening hours, the culture secretary argued that ministers and the industry shared opponents who want to destroy the licensing bill.

If these "nanny staters" were allowed to win the result would be "more, rather than less, restrictive regimes" she said.

Jowell outlined her proposed changes to both licensing and gambling law.

Speaking at the Business in Sport and Leisure annual conference, she expressed her hope to introduce legislation to deregulate the gambling industry in the next year.

The draft licensing bill, introduced in the Queen's Speech, was published last week.

Jowell said she hoped the bill would receive Royal Assent by June 2003, helping the government deregulate the industry while protecting children and ending the culture of "binge drinking".

The much delayed move towards a liberalised 24-hour drinking culture has been widely welcomed in the leisure industry.

But Jowell hinted strongly that the industry and the government would need to present a united front if the proposals were not to be defeated.

Referring to brewers and publicans who have opposed the plans on the grounds of cost, she said that "if too many people in industry complain about reform, they will weaken support for it in parliament".

"And remember that reform has opponents out there who will be seeking to change the proposed legislation in ways you will not like at all.

"Unless the industry is prepared to fight for a more flexible and freer system, the reforms could result in more, rather than less, restrictive regimes. If you are divided, you could hand victory to the nanny staters," Jowell added.