Death rates from coronary heart disease have more than halved in almost all EU countries since the early 1980s, a research says, according to BBC News.

Most countries have seen steady reductions in deaths in both men and women of all ages, despite rises in obesity and diabetes, a UK study shows.

However, experts have warned against complacency, saying wide disparities remain across Europe. Coronary heart disease is the UK's single biggest killer. About one in five men and one in eight women die from the disease.

A new study, published in the European Heart Journal, looked at deaths from the condition between 1980 and 2009 in men and women across four age groups - under-45, 45-54, 55-64, and 65 and over.

Overall there was a steady decline in mortality when all ages were considered together, a team from the British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group at the University of Oxford found.

However, there was significant variation between individual countries, with a levelling off or increase in heart disease deaths among some age groups.

Rising risk factors such as diabetes and obesity, and increased smoking in some countries, could still have an impact on heart disease deaths in years to come, the researchers warn.

Denmark, Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, had the largest decreases in mortality in both sexes over the past three decades.