VATICAN CITY - THE Vatican's newspaper on Friday paid tribute to Michael Jackson following the pop legend's death, comparing him to Elvis Presley while speculating over the reasons for his plastic surgery.

The Osservatore Romano paper said Jackson and musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and John Lennon 'never die in the imagination of their fans.'

It called him a 'child prodigy' with an 'extraordinary soul voice' that led to the global success of the Jackson Five.

Referring to Jackson's surgeries, the paper called them a 'personal more than racial redefinition.'

It said 'maybe Jackson didn't simply want to become white, but to transcend boundaries, even artistic ones, imposed by ethnic identity.'

Jackson insisted that his increasingly pale complexion was down to a rare skin condition known as vitiligo and lupus; his detractors speculated he had undergone skin-bleaching.

In 1988, Jackson wrote in his autobiography 'Moonwalk' that he had undergone several surgical procedures.

The Vatican paper also wrote of Jackson's 'judicial entanglements following paedophile accusations.' Jackson was acquitted in June 2005.

'But no accusation, however serious or shameful, is enough to tarnish his myth among his millions of fans throughout the entire world,' it said.

Jackson's autopsy was to get underway Friday as attention turned to the possible role of drugs in the King of Pop's death at the age of 50. -- AFP

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