Obama 'Most Powerful Man in the World': Berlusconi 12th, Brown 29th, Sarkozy 56th...

There was a particularly interesting article published online this weekend as Forbes Magazine, the highly-regarded American business publication, unveiled a list of the 'World's Most Powerful People'.

At number one was of course, US President Barack Obama, but it was further down the list that it got interesting...

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin came second and third in the list respectively, ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (4th) and the founders of Google Sergey Brin & Larry Page (5th).

Rupert Murdoch, the head of NewsCorp, only makes it into seventh place, but still is deemed more powerful than Pope Benedict XVI (11th).

The first European leader to appear on the list is Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (12th) closely followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (15th).

No doubt, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (17th) will be secretly pleased to see her husband Bill below her in the list (31st), but you can bet your life-savings on the fact French President Nicolas Sarkozy will not be pleased to find himself a lowly-placed 56th... far behind fellow countryman Jean-Claude Trichet (25th) who is head of the European Central Bank.

As for the UK: well our Prime Minister Gordon Brown is ranked 29th (although if it's any consolation he is above al-Qaeda founder, the infamous Osama Bin Laden...).

Forbes used a four-part formula to rank the world's most powerful, considering the number of people a person influences, their ability to project power, control or access to wealth and how actively a person wields their power.

To consult the full list: click here.