The health secretary has pledged to provide free fruit to all school children.

John Reid announced on Thursday that a pilot scheme which has so far reached one million pupils will be extended throughout England.

The policy designed to improve children's diets and crack down on obesity has been hailed as a success with positive knock-on effects on out of school eating habits and classroom performance.

The National School Fruit Scheme (NSFS) comes on top of a drive to reduce the impact of in-school vending machines and improve public health education.

Reid announced £77 million of new government money to fund the extension of pilot programmes that have run in four areas of England.

A similar scheme is also being implemented in Wales.

Ministers have become increasingly concerned about the obesity epidemic with studies showing a huge rise in the problem that has been linked to cancer, heart disease, diabetes and reduced life expectancy.

Reid said that the NSFS was one part of a joined up strategy aimed at reducing long term health problems.

"Encouraging children to eat more healthily is vital if we're to tackle the increasing problem of child obesity," he said.

"We said that every child aged 4 to 6 years old would be entitled to a free piece of fruit each school day, and this new funding will deliver on this commitment.

"The scheme is a key element of our efforts to combat obesity and encourage a healthier population.

"We're developing action plans on food, healthy eating and physical activity and we've set the food industry a deadline to outline their commitments to reducing salt levels in their products."