Sunscreen products which carry misleading claims about the level of protection from harmful rays are to be banned by the EU.

As Europe basked in early summer sunshine yesterday, the European commission unveiled plans to ensure that consumers are not cheated into buying weak sunscreens.

The commission identified false boasts on suntan products. These include claims that products can act as "sun blocker" or that they offer "total protection" or "100% anti-UVA/UVB". A spokesman said: "It is impossible to offer this, so no such products can exist."

The commission is to suggest a new system to simplify the highly complex "sun protection factor" (SPF) rating for sun screen products. This only protects against UVB rays, which cause sunburn, and not against the more harmful UVA rays which ages the skin and can cause skin cancer.

A new graded system will be introduced for products which offer protection against both UVB and UVA rays. These will run from "low", covering the current SPF ratings for UVB rays of six to 10; "medium", covering 15-25; "high", covering 30 to 50; and "very high", covering 50 and above.

Manufacturers will be allowed to use the new ratings only if their products also offer protection against the more harmful UVA rays.

They will have to guarantee that the protection against UVA rays is at least a third as powerful as the protection against UVB rays. This would mean that a suntan lotion in the "medium" category which has an SPF rating of 30 for UVB would have to have an equivalent UVA rating of 10.