AMERICAN IDOL - IDOL CLARKSON BUCKLES UNDER COWELL PRESSURE

Former AMERICAN IDOL winner KELLY CLARKSON has backed down under pressure from the show's judge SIMON COWELL and agreed to let her songs be used by contestants on the new series.

The singer is in negotiations to allow her hits to be performed by pop hopefuls on a "case-by-case basis", a spokesman for her Sony BMG record label confirmed yesterday (18JAN06).

Acid-tongued Cowell blasted the talent show protegee on Tuesday (17JAN06) for forgetting her roots.

He told the SINCE U BEEN GONE hitmaker, "I think that by ignoring the show you're ignoring the audience who put you there."

But in past interviews Clarkson has maintained she has no worries about her enduring association with the show: "That's where I got my start. They always talk about the big first thing that you did.

"I think the only thing that I do mind is I don't want people to only focus on that."