Men looking for love on the internet are keener to meet women with whom they exchange emails than their female counterparts.

A poll of 14,000 subscribers by udate.com found 42 per cent of men were willing to see someone after only one to five emails, compared with just 18 per cent of women.

It also showed 42 per cent of women would want to wait until 15 or more emails had been exchanged before meeting someone, compared with only 16 per cent of men.

A spokeswoman for udate.com said: "Clearly men are often a little bit keener to meet up than women are. The way people interact offline is transferring to the online dating world."

Udate claimed its online service resulted in more than one marriage a week.

www.udate.com