The British Prime Minister Tony Blair may be on a high-profile tour of Japan, extolling the virtues of British Industry, but many local people could be left wondering who he is.

That is because 4% of Japanese believe the Prime Minister of Britain is, in fact, Prince Charles.

The revelation comes in a Royal Mail survey of international attitudes towards Britain that finds foreigners do not know as much about Britain as we may like.

More than 1,000 people in countries all over the world were asked what they knew about Britain and the British.

Several interesting candidates for PM emerged from the results.

Alan Shearer leads England on the football pitch not in Parliament

While footballer Alan Shearer may be best known as England's deadliest striker, 3% of Indians believe he leads the country as well.

And the bad news continues for Tony Blair.

It seems that his landslide victory on May 1 last year did not make headlines in the Indian subcontinent where an enormous 26% of people still think John Major rules the roost at 10 Downing street.

One in six Americans and South Africans think the same.

And Virgin boss Richard Branson's ballooning efforts may have boosted his profile in Germany where 4% of people believe Prime Minister Branson leads the nation.

When questioned about Britain generally, one of the main trends to emerge from the survey is that the country is perceived as both stuffy and insular.

British women are polite, intelligent and sophisticated - although one in ten people believe they smoke too much.

Meanwhile British men have the reputation of being dirty among 4% of respondents.

"It is clear form our survey that people from overseas don't know as much about Britain and the British as we might think or like," said Royal Mail spokesman Stephen Davie.

But he says the news is not all bad: "Things have improved vastly in the last few years. The results of our survey show that attitudes are changing. 40% of Germans and French questioned say they think Britons have become a friendlier lot in the last five years."

The Royal Mail believes the key to improving our international image is better and more frequent communication.

That could settle the score internationally on whether Tony Blair or Alan Shearer heads the Government.

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