Still One Nation Under God...

Americans are more than twice as likely to believe that religion is important to them than people from any other western country, a survey of 44 countries has revealed.

The telephone poll, claiming to represent the views of 38,000 respondents in every continent found 59% of the Americans questioned saying religion played a very important part in their lives.

Only 30% of Canadians responded in the same way, while most Europeans appeared indifferent to religion's importance. The response from Europe showed 11% in France, 21% in Germany and 27% in Italy saying religion was very important to them.

Surprisingly, 33% of Britons answered positively, even though less than 10% of the population is observant.

Andrew Kohut, the director of the Washington-based Pew Research Centre which carried out the poll, said: "The survey shows Americans are more religious than people in other developed countries, even those which are so culturally similar to us in so many other ways. Americans still believe they are one nation under God, whereas Europe is becoming increasingly secular."

In other parts of the world, religion represented a much higher priority: about 90% in Asia, 80% in Africa and 70% in Latin America affirmed the importance of religion to them.