AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in his latest incarnation as a gay Austrian fashion reporter, jet skied through a canal into Amsterdam's red light district on Friday to open a brothel full of men in thongs ahead of the Dutch premiere of 'Bruno'.

"For too long, guys coming here from around the world have been forced to have sex with women," Cohen said, standing in front of a pink-lit brothel building in the Dutch capital as surprised tourists and stag party goers looked on.

"It gives me great pleasure to declare Amsterdam's pink light district officially open for business," he said, as about a dozen men emerged from behind curtains at the windows of a three-storey brothel.

Cohen, hoping to replicate the success of his 2006 hit movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," was wearing a cut-away suit which revealed his own red thong. In "Bruno," Cohen is a gay fashion reporter seeking stardom in America.

After declaring the pink brothel open, Cohen left in a black car while the men left their rooms, put on white robes and waved goodbye to crowds. The real prostitutes, who had hidden from the flashing cameras, reopened their curtains to wait for their next clients in their red-lit windows.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby, editing by Paul Casciato)