10:11am UK, Friday January 02, 2004

Norwegian singer Kurt Nilsen has won the clash of the world's Pop Idols.

Former plumber Nilsen, 25, was named World Idol following a special edition of the talent contest which featured the winners of all the overseas shows.

World beater Nilsen

Britain's Pop Idol Will Young finished fifth in the competition, hosted by Ant and Dec.

Kurt won maximum points from nine of the 11 countries which voted in the contest for his rendition of the U2 track Beautiful Day.

After being announced as the winner, a clearly thriller and tearful Kurt said: "This is totally amazing," and to the other 10 Pop Idols he said: "I love you guys."

The US's Pop Idol, Kelly Clarkson, finished second in the competition, while Belgian rocker Peter Evrard - who sang a cover of the Nirvana song Lithium - was third.

Their performances were broadcast in a special show on ITV1 on Christmas Day, with the winners announced in an hour-long results programme on Thursday.

Following Kurt's performance, judge Simon Cowell said: "You have an astonishingly good voice and I think you could be the dark horse to win this competition."

Kurt won the Norwegian version of Pop Idol in May last year. His single She's So High went straight to number one in the Norwegian singles chart and is the country's biggest selling single to date.