South Africans have put their votes firmly behind local lovelies, according to the results of FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World poll, announced at the weekend.

While pop superstar Britney Spears was ruled the sexiest woman alive according to international votes in the poll, Cape Town model and former Guess girl Minki van der Westhuizen sprinted ahead 34 positions to place right behind Spears, earning the title of FHM's Sexiest Woman in South Africa.

The major finding of this year's 100 Sexiest poll, says FHM editor Brendan Cooper, is the unprecedented level of support for our local girls. Of 38 new entries, 16 are South African women including the highest new entry, FHM 2004 calendar girl Tanit Phoenix, debuting at position five. "Either SA women grew incredibly sexier over the last 12 months or we've become more vociferous as a nation in our support of local talent," says Cooper.

So just how sexy are South African women?

Local beauties account for more than a third of this year's poll as against 26 percent a year ago. "Most impressive is their almost complete dominance of the top ten," notes Cooper.

"Apart from Britney at number one and Jennifer Love Hewitt at number four, the rest of the top ten are proudly South African". The top-scoring SA finalists are Van der Westhuizen (#2), former Miss SA finalist Lee-Ann Liebenberg (#3), Phoenix (#5), FHM's Sexiest Woman in 2002 Kerry McGregor (#6), FHM's Sexiest Woman in 2003 Megan McKenzie (#7), former Miss Teen SA Gina Athans (#8), Oscar-winner Charlize Theron (#9) and model Tracy McGregor (#10).

Fastest climber honours goes to international R&B diva Beyonce Knowles, whose 67-place surge saw her move from last year's #97 to this year's #29. Knowles spear-headed a wave of other sexy women of colour including 2003's poll topper Halle Berry (#14), Cape Town radio personality Skyler (#26), Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai (#35), the singing doctor Jerusha Naidoo (#37), Isidingo star Hlubi Mboya (#41), 5FM DJ Zuraida Jardine (#52), Be-on-Mnet bachelorette Dreshi Pillay (#59), Gauteng model Babalwa Mneno (#69), Top Billing field presenter Natalie Becker (#72), lingerie model Tyra Banks (#81), Wedding Show co-presenter ChiChi Letswalo (#85), FHM Homegrown Honey finalist Angel Mthembu (#86), US songbird Alicia Keys (#90) and TV presenter/actress Kim Engelbrecht (#91).

"International number one Britney Spears is no flash-in-the-pan sexpot," according to Cooper. "She's been in the top five for the past three years consecutively. In analysing the poll results over the last five years, we've been able to establish that Britney is the all-time sexiest women in terms of how consistently popular she's been since the poll began."

South Africa's perennial beauties who made FHM's all-time top ten sexiest ever list are Kerry McGregor (#4), Charlize Theron (# 6) and Candice Hillebrand (#8).

Commenting on her new found status as the Sexiest Woman in the country, 19-year old Van der Westhuizen said that she was "surprised, flattered and very grateful". Her next assignment is a cover shoot for the August issue of FHM.

Internationally, 25 countries participated in the FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2002 Poll. They include the UK, USA, Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey and the Ukraine. The #1 woman is a global choice where all participating territories pool their votes to find a winner. Positions 2-100 reflect the voting choices of the host nation.