Alcoholic drinks should display the number of calories contained in them to help tackle the growing obesity crisis, say council leaders.

They want bottles of wine and cans of beer to carry labels to help drinkers who may not realise how many calories are in their favourite tipple.

'An average pint of beer has around 250 calories in it and yet most alcoholic drinks don't have to put any kind of ingredient labelling on cans and bottles,' said David Rogers, public health spokesman for the Local Government Association, which represents 400 local councils in England and Wales.

'There has been widespread publicity of how drink damages your health, but most people are likely to be completely unaware of the effect it can have on their waistline.'

A large glass of wine contains 185 calories, a pint of strong lager 335 calories and a pint of cider 239 calories, according to research carried out last year by Standard Life. It also found that the average adult was drinking enough alcohol to add almost 3,000 calories to their weekly calorific intake. A man is advised to consume no more than 2,500 calories a day, and a woman 2,000 calories.

Liver specialist Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians and chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said: 'Alcohol beverages are an important, unplanned, additional calorie burden.'

The European Union is consulting on proposals to make nutritional labels mandatory on alcopops and cider but not wine, beer and spirits.