The BBC’s international-facing news websites, which include bbcnews.com and bbcworldservice.co.uk, attracted 13 million weekly unique users during 2007-8, a press release from the corporation has said.

According to independent surveys, the audience for all of the Beeb’s international news services was more than 233 million a week over the same period.

The figure rose by by 23 million from 211 million two years ago.