Jackson to face multiple child sex charges

Pop superstar Michael Jackson, a self-styled "Peter Pan" whose relationship with children has long been controversial, was ordered yesterday to surrender to California authorities to face multiple charges of child molestation, officials said.

Law enforcement officials who spent more than 14 hours on Tuesday searching Jackson's sprawling Neverland ranch near Santa Barbara, central California, gave no details of the case - including whether it involved one or more children - but said an arrest warrant had been issued against the singer.

"An arrest warrant for Mr Jackson has been issued on multiple counts of child molestation. The bail amount on the warrant has been set at $3 million," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson said.

"There is a warrant outstanding and in a very short period of time there will be charges filed against Mr Jackson," Anderson said.

Jackson was in Las Vegas shooting a music video when his ranch was raided on Tuesday. Anderson said law enforcement authorities were working with the singer's lawyers on the terms of his surrender.

Police declined to go into details or name the alleged victim or victims, but media reports have said they were brought by a 12-year-old boy.

Jackson was the subject of similar allegations in 1993 and 1994 brought by a 14-year-old boy. But criminal charges were never filed, and Jackson was never arrested, because the accuser declined to testify. Jackson later reached a multimillion-dollar out-of-court civil settlement with the boy's family.

Santa Barbara District Attorney Thomas Sneddon told the news conference that the current case was different because it involved multiple charges and "we have a cooperative victim in this particular proceeding." He also said the laws have been tightened up in the past decade because of the Jackson case, and added that there was a public feeling that the singer had evaded prosecution last time.