Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the maker of Davidoff cigarettes, obtained approval to introduce its cigarette brands in the US The National ... Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the maker of Davidoff cigarettes, won approval to introduce its European brands in the U.S., the industry’s most profitable market. The Bristol, England-based company said today that it joined the Master Settlement Agreement, a nine-year-old accord between cigarette makers that restricts advertising and is a prerequisite to selling tobacco in the U.S.

Imperial will start selling brands such as Davidoff in the U.S. within weeks. Imperial, Europe’s second-largest publicly traded cigarette maker, this year became the first foreign competitor for Altria Group Inc. and Reynolds American Inc. in their home market in a decade. Imperial already sells cigarettes in the U.S. through Commonwealth Brands, which it bought in April for $1.9 billion. That company has 3.7 percent of the U.S. market with discount brands such as USA Gold and Sonoma.

`We are looking forward to further enhancing our presence in this highly profitable market,’’ Chief Executive Officer Gareth Davis said in the statement. The shares fell 35 pence, or 1.4 percent, to 2,444 pence at 8:01 a.m. in London. That reduced their gain this year to 22 percent, trailing the 25 percent increase by rival British American Tobacco Plc. Fine Cut The company also sees ``opportunities’’ to expand its U.S. fine cut tobacco business, Imperial spokesman Alan Parsons said. Imperial has about 1 percent of the U.S. market for fine cut tobacco, which smokers use to roll their own cigarettes.

Formed in 1901 to stop American Tobacco from buying up British cigarette makers, Imperial entered the U.S. a century after promising to keep out of the country to end a price war. Imperial started selling its premium Davidoff brand in Mexico and Canada this year. Imperial Tobacco, whose brands also include John Player Special and West, said in March that expansion in the U.S. would add 50 million pounds ($103 million) to profit in the year through September 2009. The four largest U.S. tobacco companies signed the Master Settlement Agreement in 1998 with 46 states.