German football fan courtesy of flickr user dario_471

Since 2005, the BBC World Service has been conducting a yearly worldwide opinion poll to measure how powerful countries (34) are perceived in the eyes of the world. They added Germany to the roster this time and meine gute! it topped the list with 56% of the 17,000 polled saying they had a favourable view of Germany with 18% holding a negative view. Though it drew a tie with Japan on the positive side, also with 56%, Germany got the top spot as Japan's negatives hit 21%. The win came as a complete surprise, writes Deutsche Welle.

Three out of four Spaniards, Portuguese and French as well as a whopping 82 percent of Italians said they viewed Germany as a "mainly positive" force in world affairs. Germany is also popular among people in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa. Latin Americans tended to be more mildly favorable. Only two countries, Turkey (42 percent) and Egypt (43 percent) had predominantly negative views.

Things are also looking up for today's favoured object of ire, the United States, which saw it's positive feelings rating rise to 35% from 31% last year. Why the upturn? American foreign policy and the possibility of its changing on the prospect of a new leader in the White House in 2009. That's what the survey's directing organisation believes, "It may be that as the US approaches a new presidential election, views of the US are being mitigated by hope that a new administration will move away from the foreign policies that have been so unpopular in the world."

Get complete poll results here in a pdf [4mb, 22p].