(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-13 16:36

FRANKFURT - Doctors are the most trusted professionals in Europe and the United States while politicians command universal distrust, a survey published on Friday showed.

Teachers, police and the military are also widely admired for their integrity while top managers, journalists and lawyers were all rated "quite untrustworthy" in the poll by Germany's GfK market research firm.

Italians, Bulgarians and Czechs were found to be particularly unhappy with their politicians, according to the survey of more than 16,000 people in 18 countries, and lawyers were also less trusted in Italy than anywhere else.

The Swiss are most trusting of their political leaders, with 35 percent of respondents saying they were "quite trustworthy" or "very trustworthy".

Managers are mainly distrusted except in Denmark, Sweden and Romania, and journalists also command little trust outside Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Spain.

The clergy received mixed reviews. In Eastern Orthodox Romania, Lutheran Sweden and Germany -- where most people are either Protestant or Roman Catholic -- they scored well.

In overwhelmingly Catholic France and Spain as well as Greece, where most people are Orthodox, the clergy was viewed with the most suspicion.

The army commands trust everywhere but the Netherlands, and the police do so everywhere but Bulgaria.

The GfK publishes its so-called trust index once a year. It surveyed participants between March and May this year.