New research presented at the 14th European Congress on Obesity on Wednesday shows that youngsters in Europe are catching up with their counterparts in the United States, where 2 million children are affected by metabolic syndrome.

Its symptoms include a large waistline, high blood pressure, raised insulin levels, excess body weight and abnormal cholesterol levels. If someone has three or more symptoms they have the syndrome and a higher risk of suffering from life-threatening illnesses. "This is more than just a warning signal - it is the red light: we need to call a stop to the continuing pressures on children to eat too much and have so little active play," said Professor Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF).

Preliminary estimates suggest that 900,000 children in the European Union have high cholesterol, 520,000 suffer from high blood pressure and 90,000 have impaired glucose tolerance, a pre-diabetic condition.

"Analyzing it on an EU level we can calculate what the metabolic syndrome burden might be," said Neville Rigby, the director of policy and public affairs at the IOTF. "It is quite significant."

Up to 10,000 children are estimated to be suffering from type 2 diabetes - an illness previously seen only in adults.

Metabolic syndrome, which is also known as syndrome X, has become more common as the number of overweight and obese people rises. More than 300 million adults worldwide are obese, according to the World Health Organization.

In the United States, an estimated 20-25 percent of adults have metabolic syndrome. A recent survey in Greece showed 2.3 million adults have the cluster of risk factors. A shift away from its Mediterranean-type diet is thought to be a factor. Inactivity, genetic factors and being overweight or obese are the underlying causes of metabolic syndrome. Each component of the syndrome raises the risk of developing one or more diseases. The more components people have, the greater the risk to their health.

People with the syndrome are three times as likely as healthy people to have a heart attack or stroke and twice as likely to die as a result. They also have a five-fold greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

Health experts have advised people to increase their physical activity, lose weight, give up smoking and lower their blood and cholesterol levels to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome.

"We must act swiftly with effective public health measures to ensure we do all we can to prevent the situation getting much worse with resolute action to protect children," said James.

About 2,000 delegates from 80 countries are attending the four-day meeting.