Richmond, Va. (AP) - A bill affecting smoking in bars and restaurants was among measures Gov. Timothy M. Kaine vetoed on Tuesday after legislators rejected his amendments to them last week.

Kaine had amended a House bill, turning it into an outright ban on all smoking in any establishments that serve food.

The House last week rejected the amendment. Without Kaine's changes, the bill would have ended the requirement that restaurants reserve non-smoking areas as long as they post signs at their entrances warning patrons that they allow smoking.

Kaine's changes would have been the most dramatic curbs on tobacco in Virginia, a state that so reveres the crop that frescoes of the leaf form garlands that adorn the ceiling of the Capitol rotunda.

"I am not willing to sign legislation that would eliminate the current requirement for a nonsmoking section in restaurants," Kaine wrote in explaining his veto.

The veto keeps in force the mandate for restaurants to maintain separate non-smoking areas.

He also said he is asking the state health commissioner to develop legislation that would curb restaurant smoking for the 2008 General Assembly.

Anti-tobacco legislation has historically had difficulty in Virginia, home to a Philip Morris cigarette factory that is the world's largest and a monied and influential tobacco lobby.

Under the state constitution, legislators return six weeks after their regular session ends to deal with gubernatorial vetoes and amendments. When amendments are rejected, a governor has 30 days after a reconvened session to kill the bill with a veto, to sign it into law or to allow it to become law without his signature.

Kaine said last week after his smoking ban amendment was rejected that he would veto the bill.

Other bills the governor vetoed include:

- A measure to provide funding for projects in Richmond and Lynchburg to prevent untreated human waste from being washed into the James River after heavy rains. Kaine had amended the bill to establish funding for the expensive projects even in years when there is no direct appropriation from the General Assembly.

Without the amendment, Kaine wrote, farmers attempting to cut down on soil, pesticide and fertilizer runoff into tributaries could have been harmed. He said he would include money in next year's budget to continue the Lynchburg and Richmond projects.

- A bill that would have weakened requirements for local officials to make public potential conflicts of interest concerning land use issues. Kaine said he tried to toughen the requirements, but his amendment was rejected.

- A bill that would have set up a study of options for treatment of sex offenders. Kaine said the legislature sought to micromanage areas best left to mental health professionals.

- A measure that would have made it easier to empanel a separate sentencing jury when the original trial jury was unable to agree on a sentence. Kaine said it's better to retain existing law which allows for a new sentencing jury only if both the prosecutor and defendant agree to it