US regulators will seek to lower the amount of nicotine in cigarettes in a bid to make them less addictive, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday.

"We need to envision a world where cigarettes lose their addictive potential through reduced nicotine levels," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said.

He is directing the agency to use its authority to begin the process of regulating nicotine in cigarettes to "render them minimally or non-addictive."

Nicotine is the chemical that makes cigarettes addictive, but it is other chemicals in the tobacco that can lead to cancer.

As part of the move, the FDA is also granting e-cigarette manufacturers more time to submit information about their products.

The announcement pushed down shares of tobacco companies, but cigarette maker Altria said it welcomed the move as an "important evolution" in regulation.

"We supported FDA regulation because, among other things, it created a framework for communication about reduced harm products," the company said in a statement.

Although smoking rates have been falling for years, tobacco use leads to some 480,000 deaths each year, the FDA said.