'Final curtain call' for Jackson

LIVE: Michael Jackson announcement

Michael Jackson's series of concerts at London's O2 arena in July will be "the final curtain call", he has told fans at the venue.

The singer, 50, confirmed the shows on stage at the Greenwich venue in front of hundreds of fans and the press.

He was introduced on by X Factor presenter Dermot O'Leary after clips of some of his earlier gigs were shown.

Posters advertising the shows had already started to appear on Thursday morning on the London Underground.

Before his arrival at the O2, fans chanted his name as they wait for him to appear.

My friends say 'you're nuts, he's doing a press conference, what are you going there for?' Because it is Michael Jackson Laura Charles

Some wore T-shirts with his face on while others clutched memorabilia.

Many said they believed he has still got what it takes to put on a great show, but that they would be happy whatever he did on stage.

Student Danielle Kassarate, 18, from Essex, said she thought the "musical genius" would be performing his famous moonwalk dance in the concerts.

"He's one of those people that will go down in history and I can tell my grandchildren I saw him so I'm excited," she added.

Laura Charles, 20, said she had left Northampton at 0530 GMT and had been waiting at the O2 since 1000 GMT.

"My feet are killing me, my back is killing me, but it's worth it," she said.

"My friends say 'you're nuts, he's doing a press conference, what are you going there for?' Because it is Michael Jackson, that's all that matters, it's Michael Jackson."

Neverland auction

In 2006, he disappointed fans at the World Music Awards in London by singing just a few lines of We Are The World.

He last toured 12 years ago.

Posters have begun to appear on London's Tube network

The O2 is the venue where Prince played for 21 nights in 2007, and where Britney Spears is performing for eight nights in June.

His last substantial series of concerts came in 1996 and 1997, when he played 82 shows in 58 cities as part of the HIStory tour. His last album of original material came out in 2001.

Stories about personal, health and financial problems have circulated in recent years, and he was cleared of child abuse after a four-month trial in 2005.

Meanwhile, Jackson is trying to stop an auction of thousands of his personal possessions.

His company, MJJ Productions, has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against Julien's Auction House.

It claims founder Darren Julien promised to send Jackson an inventory of sale items, but that the singer has not given permission for him to include all the items in the sale.

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The sale items include his American Music Award for Thriller, a velvet cape given to him by his children for Father's Day in 1998 and a pair of rhinestone-trimmed socks.

The suit claims many of the items are "priceless and irreplaceable" and describes the attempt to sell them as "malicious, fraudulent, extreme, outrageous and without any legal justification whatsoever".

Mr Julien said the lawsuit was a "total surprise to us".

"Jackson had been apprised of everything since the day we started," he added. "His manager has approved everything."