US expecting record Potter sales

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth Potter book

Advance orders for the new Harry Potter book have topped 750,000 copies at a US book store chain, beating the number of pre-orders for the last Potter book.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - the sixth Potter book - is due to be published in the US and UK on 16 July.

Barnes and Noble said it expected advance orders to exceed one million.

"The enormous amount of pre-orders to date confirm that the latest Harry Potter title will be the most popular yet," said company boss Steve Riggio.

Topped charts

JK Rowling's new book takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as villain Lord Voldemort grows stronger.

It will reveal the identity of the Half-Blood Prince, which the author has revealed is neither Harry nor Voldemort.

The book has topped the bestseller lists of Barnes and Noble's internet retail site and Amazon's US website - with only brief interruptions - since its release was announced last December.

Amazon.com announced last week that more than 500,000 pre-orders had been taken for the new book.

The Potter book series has inspired three hit movies, with a further two in production.

One month before the last Potter book's publication in June 2003, more than 875,000 advance orders were placed worldwide on Amazon's websites, breaking online records.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix went on to sell more than five million copies on its first day of publication in the US.