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Weeks after President Franois Hollande's affair with an actress was revealed, a Europe-wide survey has shown the French are the continent’s worst philanderers, while British are the least likely to cheat.

Italian men are in joint pole position with their French cousins, with 55 per cent of males from both countries saying that they have had sexual relations with a woman other than the person they were in a relationship with.

British men scored far lower, but were shown to be no angels, with 42 per cent of them saying they had had an affair, according to the survey of nearly 5,000 people in six countries.

The survey, carried out by polling firm IFOP for Gleeden, which claims to be the “premiere international dating website for married people”, comes just a few weeks after President Hollande was snapped leaving the home of actress Julie Gayet on a scooter.

“After all the noise about 'L'Affaire Gayet', and all the articles in the international press about the fickle nature of the French, this seems to confirm the clichs about Latin males," said Ifop director Francois Kraus.

Mr Hollande and Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi, who was last year convicted of paying for sex with an underage prostitute at one of his infamous "bunga bunga parties", are "ultimately quite representative of their respective nations," noted Kraus.

The pollsters suggested a link between bed-hopping and religion, saying there was less evidence of cheating in "majority Protestant" countries.

German men were slightly more promiscuous than their British counterparts, with 46 per cent of them admitting to infidelity, while the Belgians, at 51 per cent, beat the Spanish at 50 per cent.

Women in all six countries were far better behaved than their menfolk.

By far the naughtiest were the Germans, with 43 per cent of them admitting playing the field, far behind the Italians and the French at 34 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.

Cheating British women came in at 29 per cent, on a par with the Belgians and just above the Spanish.

The poll also showed that the British suffered more from remorse after hopping into bed with another man or woman.

About half of British respondents who admitted infidelity said they regretted it, while only 28 per cent of French did.