Jackson was due to perform with Luciano Pavarotti at a show in Modena, Italy, in support of the children of Kosovo and Guatemala.

But he decided not to travel because Prince Michael Joseph Jackson Junior is in New York suffering from a viral infection which has paralysed him.

An executive at his record company, Sony, said: "Prince suffered a serious seizure early on Saturday due to a high temperature. This is the third such seizure over the last year."

A spokesman for the star said: "Michael is devastated. He was desperate to perform but, like any parent who has undergone the frightening experience of witnessing his child having such an attack, he cannot leave Prince's bedside until his condition improves."

Viral infection

On stage in Modena, Pavarotti asked the audience to pray for the child, but in Los Angeles Jackson's wife Debbie Rowe denied reports her son was dying.

Ms Rowe, who worked as a nurse for one of Jackson's doctors before their 1996 marriage, told a local TV station: "He's fine. He is not dying. He has a virus infection and is going to be fine.

"It's horrible to go through. To hear that your child is dying and to find it on the news and it not be true to terrifying, especially when I've spoken to his father and he told me he was okay."

She added she was planning to travel to New York to be with Prince.

Prince Michael, who was born in February 1997, was taken to hospital in January and treated for a viral infection accompanied by fever and dehydration.