London: The UK Government’s Department of Health is to offer dancing lessons in a bid to cut obesity levels.

Adults will be prescribed lessons in the waltz and tango, while teenagers will be tutored in the latest street dance. Also on the exercise list will be trampolining and country walks.

The authorities are hoping that increased exercise levels will cut the UK’s obesity problem – the worst in Europe with a quarter of adults classed as obese.

British children spend almost nine and a half hours a week in front of a TV or playing computer games – and less than an hour a day exercising.

If the trend continues it is thought a third of adults and a fifth of children will be obese by

The Government says will try to motivate the obese by paying for them to take part in a range of activities.