David Cameron picks Harry Potter character to emulate

David Cameron has chosen child-wizard Harry Potter as the JK Rowling character he would most like to be.

The prime minister said there were lots of the author's characters he would not like to be - and that the British public might see him as one of them.

He was asked to choose a Rowling character to emulate by a student at Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev University.

Rowling's seven-book Harry Potter series saw sales in the hundreds of millions and gave rise to eight films.

Mr Cameron said his nine-year-old daughter had just begun reading the books so he was now "rediscovering them".

"I can think of all sorts of characters you don't want to be and I suppose in the end you know if you've got any sense you want to be Harry Potter. That must be the correct answer."

But he admitted the chances of UK voters seeing him as the forever youthful, popular hero were slim.

The prime minister said he would like to be Harry Potter - played on screen by Daniel Radcliffe

"I suspect people in Britain might want to paint me in a different role," he said. "But I'll let them do that. I won't make the work easier for them."

The prime minister did not elaborate on which other characters his domestic audience might like to cast him as.

He is in Kazakhstan on a trade visit - the first serving British prime minister to visit the oil-rich nation.