Tom Hanks has a foolproof trick to go unnoticed while vacationing in Europe - he squeezes into tiny Speedo swimming trunks.

The Big star is amazed by the amount of male flesh on display on beaches in Europe, because his fellow countrymen wear baggy swim shorts to cover up as much as possible.

He tells British talk show host Jonathan Ross, "Speedos - you Europeans have a thing - the shame that you do not exude when you wear a Speedo is to be congratulated.

"In America, you'd be persecuted, you'd be arrested, you'd be hounded out of town. Americans, when we go to the beach, we try to wear big baggy shorts that go from here all the way down below our knees, with pockets in them for our glasses and surf wax. They stay wet all day!"

And the actor insists the minuscule bathing suit is the perfect disguise for concealing his identity.

He jokes, "When you come to Europe on vacation and you don't want to be identified as an American, you wear a Speedo and everybody thinks you're from Belgium."