A new study released on Monday shows that European mobile phone users are more likely to access the internet on their handsets than American users.

Market research firm, comScore Networks, released data indicating that 29 percent of mobile users from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK regularly access the web from their phones compared to only 19 percent in the U.S.

German and Italy had the highest amount of users, with 34 percent penetration for each country, while France and Spain had 28 and 26 percents respectively.

Portal websites were the most visited types of sites in both regions, with Google, Yahoo and MSN, leading the way as the most popular destination.

Three-quarters of American mobile Web surfers access content from the leading online portals such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN compared to only thirty percent of Europeans, commented Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe.

In Europe, the mobile Internet appears to mirror the dynamics of the fixed Internet. Google remains strong but the other U.S.-based portals achieve much lower penetration, facing stiff competition from local competitors -in this case the mobile providers - who have the structural advantage of a degree of control over the access point and interface from the mobile phone.

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