Political sleaze is the biggest corruption scourge facing the world, but most acutely Argentina and Japan, according to a global survey of public perceptions released yesterday by an international watchdog.

The poll for Transparency International found that when asked which area of public life they would most like to rid of corruption, people in three out of every four countries pointed to politics.

Police, the courts and medical services followed, while other areas - such as education, customs, business licensing, utilities, passports, the private sector and tax revenue - were seen as less damaged by sleaze.

"The people of the world are sending a clear message to political leaders: they must rebuild the trust of ordinary people," Transparency chairperson Peter Eigen said in Berlin.

"It is time to recognise the full extent of corruption among the political elites in both the developed and developing worlds, and the need to curtail conflicts of interest and political immunity".

Questions on corruption were included in a general household survey of more than 40 000 people in 47 countries by the Gallup polling institute.

Asked where they most wanted to eliminate corruption, 58,2% of respondents in Argentina and 51,9 percent in Japan said political parties.

The figure was also relatively high in Turkey (42,5%), Britain and India (41,2% each) and the US (39,1%).

Countries where people thought the police needed cleaning-up the most were led by Mexico (36,5%), Hong Kong (35,4%), Nigeria (32,1%) and Malaysia (32%).

The courts were seen as most corrupt in Peru, Indonesia and Cameroon, while respondents in Croatia, Georgia and Poland pointed to medical services.

Asked about the future, three out of 10 said that they expected corruption to increase, while only one in five thought it would fall.

The optimists were in Colombia, Croatia, Indonesia and Ireland.

Pessimists were India, Cameroon, South Africa and Turkey.

The survey also found a correlation between wealth and a perception of how corruption affected people as individuals or families.

Some 40% of respondents on a low income said corruption had a "very significant" effect on their personal and family life.

That answer came from only 20% of those on a high income.

Transparency International called on governments to sign a forthcoming UN convention on corruption and to make sure it was implemented rigorously.

The survey was conducted a year ago, but only published now due to waiting for details from the Palestinian Authority and not wanting to clash with the media coverage of the war on Iraq.

The sleaze watchdog also publishes an annual so-called corruption index, which lists countries in order of how corrupt they are perceived to be. - Sapa-AFP.