The UK is nowhere to be seen on the list of countries that are embracing e-government and offering sophisticated services to their citizens.

Denmark leads the European community on e-government, according to a new study from research company IDC. Sweden and Finland are also running at the head of the pack.

Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland have also developed relatively sophisticated e-government services, according to the report. France is named as the country investing most money into e-government systems.

The European eGovernment Services, Country Benchmarking and Market Forecast, 2002-2007 report also claims that hardly any of the European nations will achieve their target completion date of 2005 for providing e-government services.

"Few countries are likely to achieve the eEurope Action Plan objective of having all services online by 2005," said Marianne Kolding, director of IDC’s European Services research.

"However, e-government has definitely become a key component of government modernization strategies."
www.idc.com