Clock ticking for eagerly-anticipated final Harry Potter release

LONDON (AFP) - Fans were eagerly queuing up outside bookstores across Britain Friday to get hold of their copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" amid a transatlantic storm over leaked material from the novel.

With less than 24 hours to go before the long-awaited book's release at one minute past midnight (2301 GMT) in Britain and worldwide, more than 100 people were already waiting outside a bookseller in London to get the first copies.

In an early sign of the frenzy that the book's release was likely to cause in Britain, supermarket retailer Asda announced that it would be selling it for five pounds (7.5 euros, 10 dollars), markedly below its 17.99-pound recommended retail price.

The book's release is threatened to be overshadowed by the controversy over the leaks, however, which emerged despite tight security surrounding the book.

Online retailer Amazon said it had received 2.2 million pre-orders globally, and a spokesman for the company's UK unit told AFP that "security is the highest it's ever been."

"I can't go into details about our operations or our security, because it is highly secure -- we're keeping the books in a secure location, a secret, specially-created location," he said.

Author J.K. Rowling said on Thursday that she was "staggered" by the publication of reviews of the seventh Potter book by The New York Times and others, and earlier urged fans to "ignore the misinformation" circulating about the plot.

Her comments came after lawyers for her publishers told websites to remove published photographs of what were claimed to be extracts from the book.

The book's US publisher Scholastic also said Thursday that it would take legal action against a distributor and a retailer who sent hundreds of copies to readers in advance of the release date.

The New York Times review, written from a copy bought in the city Thursday, does not reveal which characters are killed off, despite fevered speculation among fans that Potter himself could be among them.

Rowling has said she killed off two characters, but has refused to reveal which ones.

The review describes the final pages of the book as "a big-screen, heart-racing, bone-chilling confrontation" and says it contains "an epilogue that clearly lays out people's fates."

"The losses mount with unnerving speed: at least a half-dozen characters we have come to know die in these pages," the review adds.

The influential daily, which prides itself on high journalistic standards, defended its decision, saying it had not given away the ending.

"Our feeling is that once a book is offered up for sale at any public retail outlet, and we purchase a copy legally and openly, we are free to review it," culture, books and theater editor Rick Lyman said in a statement.

For their part, several British newspapers either re-printed the review in full, or summarised it.

The six Potter books so far released have sold 325 million copies internationally and have been translated into 64 languages, though the final tome is set to out-sell each of its predecessors.

Rowling is hosting a signing and reading overnight Friday with hundreds of fans at London's Natural History Museum, while hundreds of British bookshops are hosting after-hours parties to which fans are likely to flock.

Having conceived of the story while on a train from Manchester to London, she wrote the first book as a single mother receiving state benefits, and has made an estimated one billion dollars (725 million euros) from the works, the first of which appeared 10 years ago.

She has not completely ruled out writing a new Potter book, although she says it is highly unlikely, and is now set to work on new writing projects.

Daniel Radcliffe, the 17-year-old star of the blockbuster film franchise, has said he believes Harry could be killed.

British bookmaker Ladbrokes has stopped taking all bets related to the book, while rivals William Hill are no longer taking money on Potter's killer after a flurry of bets.