LAST year Gordon Brown carried some real clout. But this year, according to a list of the most influential people in the world, the Chancellor has lost it.

In its annual publication of the 100 most influential figures last year, Time magazine included Mr Brown, but yesterday, in its latest Top 100, it dropped him, a sign that despite his predicted inheritance of Tony Blair’s prime ministership, Mr Brown still remains largely unknown in the US.

It was a demotion not given to such figures as President Chávez of Venezuela, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, President Bush and Bill Clinton, who all maintained their status.

In fact, according to Time, British figures have been fairly uninfluential over the past year. The only Briton on the 2006 list is Zadie Smith, the author. Time said that her work “is simultaneously intellectual and visceral, a panoramic view of the way we live now”.

Also dropped was Donald Rumsfeld, the embattled US Defence Secretary, who has faced recent calls by former generals for his resignation.

Gone, too, is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, but Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, who only last week released a videotape urging supporters to continue global jihad, has been added. Among world leaders included this year are President Musharraf of Pakistan and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who visits Washington this week for a second time since her election victory.

In producing the list the magazine said: “We live in an interconnecting and global village, a place where people you might not have heard about as well as those you have are influencing the way we live in the 21st century.”

For the first time the magazine has introduced a “power couples” section, which included King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan, Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel, the Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and the husband-and-wife tennis team of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

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