The ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum has been ranked sixth in a list of Heads of State who use social media to interact with their citizens.

The list includes US President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Queen Rania of Jordan, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Japanese Premier Yukio Hatoyama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The list is compiled by the Washington-based Digital Policy Council, which monitors the usage of micro-blogging sites such as Twitter.

Tweeting under the name 'HHShkMohd', Shaikh Mohammad, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai's Twitter page showed 352,389 followers till Saturday.

In a statement, the council said the ruler continues to engage his citizens and residents with open direct communication.

"In June this year, he held the first e-session with the public on the Prime Minister's official website. The frank dialogue covered many issues, most prominent the fiscal health of Dubai," it said.

The Council said it has recorded a strong movement towards open government as more leaders are aggressively pursuing social media channels as a new type of direct communication with their citizens and the global community.

"It is apparent that more and more world leaders are turning to social media to remodel how governments in the 21st century govern and communicate," the council noted.

As per figures 20 per cent or one out of five Heads of State are now on the social networking site Twitter.

The research reveals that a culture of open political discourse is spreading across the globe as more world leaders seek direct communication with their citizens.