A WORCESTER man has made a rallying call to the nation's men to be proud of their paunches, with the launch of a website celebrating the beer belly.

Thirty-six-year-old Tim Lovell, of St John's, Worcester, set up Paunchstar.com with work colleague Andy Waite as a reaction to media pressure in magazines for men to have perfect bodies.

It took Tim and Bristol-based Andy, aged 29, about a year to develop the site, which features a quiz to find out if you are a Paunchstar.

It also advertises five Paunchstar T-shirts in large and extra large sizes - fitted to show off people's prized paunches.

The website has been running for a month and has

already been visited by thousands of people from across the globe.

The duo, both freelance video editors, have also sold more than 300 T-shirts and received e-mail enquiries from as far away as Australia, America and Finland.

"We've been quite blown away by the response from guys worldwide e-mailing us pictures of their paunches," said Tim, himself the proud owner of a paunch.

"I'm really pleased with how it's going because, although we're having a laugh and fun with it, there's a serious issue in that a lot of people in Britain are spending their lives unhappy because they're constantly on a diet.

"Our message is really for people to love others for the way they look and the way they are, and not to fit into the stereotypical advertising body-perfect image."

People can visit the website at www.paunchstar.com