(FORTUNE Magazine) – Our list of the 12 most powerful business leaders outside the U.S. is made up of seven Europeans, four Asians, and a Middle Easterner. What's missing? There's no one from Africa or Latin America. (For more details and a full list of 25, see www.fortune.com/mostpowerful.) --Clay Chandler, Janet Guyon, Cait Murphy, Richard Tomlinson

1. JOHN BROWNE CEO Browne, 55, transformed Britain's BP from an also-ran into a global oil power (and the world's third-largest oil company) with the purchase of Amoco in 1998 and Arco in 2000. In Russia, he has formed the largest joint venture of any Western investor. He's a favorite with women's groups and the green lobby.

2. NOBUYUKI IDEI The 66-year-old Sony lifer, a cosmopolitan sort who serves on the boards of General Motors and Nestle, is the architect of the $61 billion Japanese company's global electronics dominance. Idei's next task: Mix the company's strengths in innovation and technology with movies, games, and multimedia.

3. SHOICHIRO TOYODA Fujio Cho runs day-to-day operations. But founding-family patriarch and honorary chairman Toyoda, 78, is the ultimate authority at Japan's Toyota Motor, which earned more money last year ($7.8 billion) than any other automaker.

4. JURGEN SCHREMPP It was Schrempp, 58, who rammed the 1999 DaimlerChrysler merger through. And though it has been a rocky ride, the German remains firmly in control after replacing most of Chrysler's senior management.

5. JOSEF ACKERMANN The Swiss-born CEO of Germany's largest bank, Ackermann, 55, has cut costs, raised profits, and streamlined operations--making Deutsche Bank one of Europe's best hopes to rival the power of the U.S. investment banks.

6. LI KA-SHING Want to ship goods through the Panama Canal? Li leases ports at both ends. Want to get stuff out of China? Likely it will go in one of his containers. Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, Hong Kong's biggest conglomerate, Li, 74, has become Asia's richest man.

7. SILVIO BERLUSCONI As founder and deputy chairman of Mediaset, Berlusconi owns three of the country's TV networks. As Prime Minister of Italy, he controls all three of the state-owned stations. Unsurprisingly, the 66-year-old billionaire gets the most timid domestic media coverage of any Western leader.

8. CLAUDE BEBEAR "The Crocodile" retired in 2000 as CEO of AXA, the global insurer he built from a clutch of obscure financial companies. But as chairman, Bebear, 67, remains the most powerful figure in French business. Last year he engineered the removal of Jean-Marie Messier as CEO of Vivendi.

9. JORMA OLLILA Since becoming CEO in 1992, Ollila has turned Nokia into Europe's most innovative and best-run telecom outfit. Though many markets are close to saturation, the Finnish company's share of the mobile-phone business is a commanding 38%.

10. CARLOS GHOSN This Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese descent has turned Japan Inc. inside out. Ghosn, 49, took over as CEO at troubled Nissan in 1999. Last year Nissan recorded the industry's highest profit margins, making $4.1 billion on revenues of $56 billion.

11. ABDALLAH JUM'AH The global economy runs on oil, and since 1995, Jum'ah, 63, has been the man with his hand on the tap. As the CEO of Saudi Aramco, which is owned by the Saudi Arabian government, he controls a quarter of the planet's estimated reserves.

12. YUN JONG YONG Yun says his mission as CEO of Samsung Electronics is to remind managers "we could go bankrupt any day." Since 1997 he has transformed the Korean giant from a corpulent also-ran to an agile competitor against the likes of Nokia and Sony.