CHARLOTTE (AP) -- Members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are expected to vote later this week on a resolution favoring government action to sharply increase cigarette taxes and outlaw vending machines.

A committee approved the proposal Tuesday. It next will be considered by the denomination's full 564-member General Assembly, which is meeting this week in the nation's top tobacco-producing state.

A committee of the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination approved a resolution yesterday urging the federal government to raise cigarette taxes and pull cigarette-vending machines.

"You saved lives this afternoon. I've never been so proud to be a Presbyterian," said Dr. Marilyn Washburn, an Atlanta physician and minister who cosponsored the resolution.

The proposal calls on Congress to outlaw cigarette vending machines and slap a $1.10 tax on each pack of cigarettes.

"It was a good move for the church, but I don't know how it's going to affect the tobacco farmers," said Regan Jones, a youth advisory delegate to the assembly from Mocksville.

The resolution also urges an end to advertising of tobacco products aimed at children. But it expresses "compassion and concern for family tobacco farmers and manufacturing workers" and tobacco users, and urges "the enactment of federal and state legislation to enable tobacco farmers and other tobacco workers to transition into alternative and comparable if not greater means of livelihood."

Including such a solution is only right, said Kavin Rossman, a committee member from Mifflinburg, Pa. "We want to approach this with Christ as our center, and we want to say, `Hey, there's hope for people who are smoking, and there's hope for people who make their living from this."'

The church's National Issues Committee also approved a resolution calling on Presbyterians to work toward removing handguns and assault weapons from their homes and communities. That resolution also will go before the full assembly.

Walt Griffith, a committee member from Portland, Ore., said that the tobacco resolution is the most important.

"My children may get killed by a random bullet, but if they smoke or chew, I know they're going to die. The greater danger is with the tobacco consumption," he said.