] Here is the Travelers' Century Club's official list of
] countries, a total of 317 as of January, 2003. Although
] some are not actually countries in their own right, they
] have been included because they are removed from parent,
] either geographically, politically or ethnologically

To belong to the TCC, you must have traveled to at least 100 countries. Some of these areas are highly debatable (for example, they'll even give country "credit" for traveling to remote areas such as Hawaii or Alaska). But I still think it's a useful list, because of its thoroughness.