Singapore, Oct. 25 (Reuters): Europeans, especially the French, like to do it at least twice a week, preferably with plenty of foreplay. Americans are also active in the bedroom, but many Asians can only manage to make love about once a week.

According to an international sex survey published this month, Asians have the dubious distinction of being the world?s least active lovers.

The annual survey by condom maker Durex has consistently placed Asia?s developed nations at the bottom of the sex league table, with Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong registering the weakest sex drive in this year?s poll. It?s enough to make Asia?s more lascivious lovers fume with wounded pride, or prompt a nervous partner to reach for the Viagra.

But experts say the results are not necessarily grounds for performance anxiety. Some doctors doubt whether the Web-based survey accurately reflects the region?s sex life. Others cite cultural and social factors that could be giving east Asians an unfair reputation for being lazy lovers.

?In Asia people may not talk so much about sex but they are certainly doing it, even older couples,? said Wei Siang Yu, a Singapore physician dubbed ?Dr Love? for offering advisory services on sexuality, reproduction and health.

The survey, based on questionnaires filled out by visitors to the Durex site, found the French make love 137 times a year, 34 times more than the average. The last-placed Japanese reported making love 46 times a year, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong with 79, Taiwan with 80, India with 82 and Malaysia with 86.

Thailand had Asia?s most active lovers, with a score of 103, but they spent the least time of all nationalities on foreplay. Some experts say the survey clearly points to a lagging sex rate in parts of Asia, although they don?t believe a simple lack of interest in love-making is to blame.

Cramped living conditions in parts of east Asia, where extended families often share a home, can also thwart couples are seeking privacy for frequent and energetic intercourse.

Some doctors add that urban stress, compounded by growing job insecurity and high living costs, may be sapping the energy for sex, especially if both partners are working.

Wei, who divides his time between Singapore and Tokyo, is highly sceptical that liberal Japan, with its erotic comics and love hotels, could really be the world?s least ardent nation. ?How can the Japanese have the lowest rate of sex in the world? Their culture is very sex-based,? he said.