German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the world's most powerful woman for the third straight year, topping Forbes magazine's 2008 list of the top 100 women based on their career, economic impact and media coverage.

Sonia Gandhi, president of the Indian National Congress Party, is ranked No. 21.

Sheila Bair, who chairs the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp that insures bank deposits, debuts at No. 2 due to her increased prominence amid a stumbling U.S. economy.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the only other government official in the top 10, although she dropped three spots from last year to No. 7 as the Bush administration prepares to leave office in January after the U.S. election in November.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of the chief executives of PepsiCo, WellPoint, Anglo American, Kraft Foods, Temasek Holdings, Areva and Xerox.

"It's inspiring to look at what some of these women have done and to listen to some of their life stories," Chana Schoenberger, Forbes' associate editor, said in an interview.

There are 54 business executives and 23 politicians on the list, with media personalities and heads of non-profit organizations rounding out the top 100. Forbes said 45 percent of the women are based outside the United States.

One third of the women are new to the list, including Argentina's first popularly elected president Cristina Fernandez and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"A lot of the women who dropped off the list this year were for job-related reasons," Schoenberger said. "In some cases it's simply a matter of the woman still has a powerful position but other women are relatively more powerful and pushed her down and off the list."

Among the women to drop off the list this year are Zoe Cruz, former president of Morgan Stanley, Patricia Russo, former head of Alcatel Lucent and Meg Whitman, who stepped down as eBay's chief executive.

Democratic U.S. senator and former presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton dropped three spots to No. 28 but gained the most media attention of any woman on the list this year.

"Certainly had she been the Democratic nominee that probably would have catapulted her higher," said Schoenberger. "She's still an incredibly powerful force, she's way more powerful than any other female senator."

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, came in at No. 35, French Minister for Economy, Finance and Employment Christine Lagarde nabbed No. 14 and Queen Rania of Jordan is No. 96.

Gail Kelly, head of Australian bank Westpac, lands at No. 11 as Westpac is making a $15.6 billion takeover of St George Bank in Australia's biggest-ever bank deal. Yahoo President Susan Decker is No. 50 and talk show host Oprah Winfrey comes in at No. 36.

Michelle Nichols