Opera Mini gained a new user ‘every second’ in August

Opera has claimed the title of the world's most popular web browser' for its Mini mobile browser, with usage increasing by more than 10 per cent.

Worldwide, more than 31.9 million people used Opera Mini in August - a 147 per cent increase from the same month last year.

In the UK, page views increased by 93.9 per cent and unique users numbers grew by 45 per cent since August 2008.

The top sites browsed by UK mobile users were the usual suspects, led by Facebook, Google and the BBC.

Nokia and Sony Ericsson devices were the most popular handsets using Opera in Europe, followed by some Samsung and LG devices.

"We work hard to ensure to ensure that Opera Mini works on every mobile phone because we are on a mission to bring the web to the world, and the mobile phone is the world's most prevalent communication device," said Opera chief executive officer Jon von Tetzchner, in a statement.

The beta for Opera 5 mini was released this month.

Click here to read our review of its desktop web browser Opera 10.