INDIA'S 120m-130m Muslims would make a country almost as populous as Pakistan.

ECONOMIST: India and Pakistan: Old foes, still foes | The

This left Mr Sharif, a champion of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous state, as the country's closest approximation to a national leader.

ECONOMIST: Pakistan

As the most populous Arab country and a historic regional heavyweight, Egypt, a predominantly Sunni power, has in the past seen itself as a political rival of Shia Iran, says the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo.

BBC: Iran President Ahmadinejad begins historic Egypt visit

Much of South-East Asia has been hit by a currency crisis, just as India's economic reforms are at last making the world's second most populous country a promising place to invest.

ECONOMIST: India: Finding its place in the world | The

Why shouldn't more be asked from a place that, as well as being the world's most-populous country, is already its biggest exporter, its biggest car market, its biggest carbon-emitter and its biggest consumer of energy (a rank China itself, typically, contests)?

ECONOMIST: China and India

As a measure of India's priorities, consider that the world's second-most-populous country has no more diplomats than tiny New Zealand.

ECONOMIST: India and its near-abroad

He also has a powerful base as party chairman in North-Rhine-Westphalia, the country's most populous state, where the most crucial of all the regional elections is due next May.

ECONOMIST: Schr?der thumped