MANILA - President Arroyo's net satisfaction ratings may be worsening but she's still the 9th sexiest head of state in the world, at least according to the Hottest Heads of State blog.

The tongue-in-cheek blog, which purports to give "a scientific and unbiased ranking of world leaders in order of hotness", ranked Arroyo hotter than US President Barack Obama. The president of the most powerful country in the world ranked 15th in the list of 172 world leaders.

Arroyo was the third woman in the top 10 list, with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko ranked no. 1 and Argentinian President Cristina Elizabet Fernández de Kirchner ranked no. 5. 

Other names on the list are Ecuador's President Rafael Correa (6), Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (18), Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (31), Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (48), Ireland's President Mary McAleese  (62), Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (97), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (109) and even North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (172).

In its About page, the site's owners said citizens of the world have suffered "under the tyranny of unattractive leaders."

"Some people say that this is just the way things are: unattractive people have a death grip on the levers of power that will never be loosened. We say: Not with that attitude it won’t. By ranking the world’s leaders by looks, we hope to heighten voter awareness of this problem and shame the citizens of countries with unattractive leaders into rising up and staging coups or something," it said.

It added: "If you disagree with our rankings, we encourage you to voice your opinion by leaving a comment at the bottom of this page. Like any good sham democracy, we will take your comments under advisement."

At least one reader seems to have taken this to heart. In his comment posted on October 14, Richard said: "Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Please take her down from number 9. That’s and (sic) old picture. She’s got much more wrinkles now."