MINIMUM unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol should be implemented in all parts of the UK and extended across Europe, a health expert has suggested.

Professor Jurgen Rehm, an adviser to the World Health Organisation (WHO), suggested people should drink no more than one unit of alcohol per day.

He described the pricing policy as serious "ammunition" in the fight against alcohol-related harm and lamented the relatively low levels of use of pricing measures across Europe.

The call came amid predictions MUP in Scotland will have a "significant impact" on health outcomes north of the border.

The Scottish Government policy to set a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol finally came into force in May after years of delays due to a legal challenge.

It was estimated the move could save around 392 lives in the first five years of its implementation in Scotland, where on average there were 22 alcohol-specific deaths every week and 697 hospital admissions.

Every day, around 800 people in the EU, Norway and Switzerland die from alcohol-attributable causes and there have been "no significant changes" in levels of alcohol consumption since 2010.

Prof Rehm, a senior director at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Canada, pointed to "huge problems" with drinking among young people in Europe - particularly the widespread prevalence of binge-drinking.

"The big ammunition is using price policy, like taxation and things like that," he said. Asked about the likely impact of MUP in Scotland, he told reporters: "Very clearly minimum unit pricing is going to have a significant impact."

He pointed to the "pretty great success" of similar pricing restrictions in countries such as Russia, saying it reduces consumption among binge drinkers and those with a dependency on alcohol.