Police mounted a large operation to insure the integrity of the event, patrolling the 300-hectare cemetery with helicopters and dogs.

Glendale police said they expected to bill the cost to Jackson's estate, which was ordered Wednesday by a probate judge to bear the 'extraordinary' costs of his funeral.

Apart from Jackson's family, entertainment figures including Diana Ross, Brooke Shields and Larry King were expected to attend the no-expenses spared funeral that was to even feature Jackson's favourite doughnuts flown in specially from Connecticut.

Probate judge Mitchell Beckloff approved the payment at a hearing in downtown Los Angeles after an attorney for the estate's administrators assured him that the estate of the late singer of such hits as Thriller and Billy Jean, who had been heavily in debt, has enough cash to cover the expenses and that paying for the funeral

would not affect its solvency.

'The expenses are extraordinary; however, Michael Jackson is extraordinary,' said attorney Jeryll Cohen, who told the judge the administrators did not object to the expenses. 'They may not be appropriate for an ordinary person, but Michael Jackson was not ordinary.'