Pop giant Michael Jackson, who took to the stage as a child star and went on to set the world dancing to the thumping rhythms of his music for decades, died late yesterday, TMZ website reported. He was 50.

"We've just learned Michael Jackson has died," TMZ said. "Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back," the entertainment site said.

The Los Angeles Times announced that Jackson was pronounced dead by doctors after he arrived in hospital. He was in a deep coma. Earlier, the Los Angeles Times said that the singer had been rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital by fire department paramedics who found him not breathing when they arrived at the singer's home.

Paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene before taking him to the UCLA Medical Centre hospital. Michael Jackson was due to start a series of comeback concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer, whose hits include Thriller and Billy Jean, had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.

The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within hours of going on sale in March.

Michael Jackson, who started out as a child star in the band The Jackson 5 more than 40 years ago, had lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation.

There had been concerns about Mr Jackson's health in recent years but the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Mr Jackson had passed a four and a half hour physical examination with independent doctors.