Jones scores third US top album

Norah Jones won eight Grammy awards in 2003

Singer-songwriter Norah Jones has scored her third consecutive US number one with the release of her new album.

But sales of Never Too Late - her first album for three years - were only half the 1.02 million of its predecessor.

Never Too Late also made the top spot in 14 other countries including Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France and Germany.

American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee was at number two with her self-titled debut, with fellow Idol contestant Chris Daughtry at three.

Londoner Lily Allen's album Alright, Still debuted in the US chart at 20 with sales of 34,000, according to Billboard.

Album sales were up 10% from last week's total at 9.37m copies sold, but down 14.6% from the same week in 2006.