Jackson comeback 'complete sell out'

Michael Jackson's 50-date residency at London's O2 Arena has completely sold out, concert promoter AEG has confirmed.

More than one million tickets have been snapped up, with 360,000 being sold to registered fans before seats were made available to the public this morning.

Hundreds of fans lined up outside the venue and a quarter of a million queued online for tickets to the 'This Is It' tour.

The comeback shows have become the fastest-selling in history, with over 33 seats sold a minute.

"That wasn't anticipated," promoter Randy Phillips told the BBC.

"We never thought '50 shows', and frankly, based on the queues on Ticketmaster plus the 300,000 registrants we still haven't issued codes to, we could spend two years here.

"Mike asked me how long he would be in the United Kingdom for and I told him, probably long enough to get a British passport.

"Michael's already pretty much put together a list of the dancers he wants. Michael's very engaged now."

Jackson extended the number of live dates after unprecedented demand. The residency is now expected to run until February 2010.

At a press conference last week, the star confirmed that the setlist would include songs "the fans want".