Tickets for Sting's June concert at the Luxol Grounds, St Andrew's, are selling like hot cakes - barely a week after they went on sale.

All the Lm35 tickets have been snapped up, and just a few hundred Lm50 tickets remain, for what is undoubtedly a performance by the biggest rock icon to ever perform on the Maltese Islands. The standing Lm15 tickets for the concert are still on sale.

"We've never had this kind of response," Nigel Camilleri from NnG Promotions told The Sunday Times.

Demand for tickets has eclipsed two of NnG's biggest-ever concerts - Elton John and Eros Ramazzotti, with the Italian singer enticing some 15,000 fans.

Sting is expected to arrive in Malta on June 5 and perform the next day, the eve of a public holiday.

According to Mr Camilleri, several foreign fans were among those who bought tickets for the concert through Sting's official Website. Since Italy has not been included on the tour circuit, many of The Police's former fans have booked their tickets for the Luxol gig.

The second part of Sting's Broken Music tour resumes in South America in April, and he will only play one European date (Portugal) before flying to Malta.

The tour has been scaled down with just three backing musicians - long- time band mate Dominic Miller on guitar, in addition to Lyle Workman also on guitar and Josh Freese on drums.

Several hit songs from The Police have been dusted down for the tour, which have been blended with modern day solo classics like Fields of Gold and Desert Rose.

Tickets are available from all Vodafone and The Matrix outlets; For more information phone 9933-4444 or e-mail: info@nngpromotions.com.