COLDPLAY - COLDPLAY HAVE THE SPICE TO TOP US SINGLE CHARTS

Coldplay's new single has topped the US charts, making them the first British group since the Spice Girls to achieve a stateside number one.

Viva La Vida, the title track from the band's fourth album, has jumped to the top spot in the Billboard Hot 199 on the strength of huge download popularity.

The track, which featured on an iTunes advertisement, has been downloaded an amazing 246,000 times in the last seven days, despite being available for three weeks.

And the controversy that emerged this week when Brooklyn group Creaky Boards claimed the Viva La Vida melody was "strikingly similar" to that of their own song The Songs I Didn't Write seems to have had little effect on the success of Coldplay's track, which is also likely to top the UK singles chart this weekend.

Viva La Vida is not the only British single in the US top ten, with Leona Lewis still going strong in fourth - having become the first British artists to top the US chart in 2008 when Bleeding Love hit number one in April - and Natasha Bedingfield climbing three places to sixth with Pocketful of Sunshine.

Last week's number one, Lollipop by Lil Wayne and Static Major, fell one place but the rapper can celebrate claiming the top spot in the album chart with Tha Carter III, which achieved the highest weekly sales figures in three years, having shipped an estimated one million copies.

The top ten singles in the US Billboard Hot 100 are: (last week's position)

1 Coldplay: Viva La Vida (2)
2 Katy Perry: I Kissed A Girl (4)
3 Lil Wayne feat. Static Major: Lollipop (1)
4 Leona Lewis: Bleeding Love (3)
5 Rihanna: Take A Bow (4)
6 Natasha Bedingfield: Pocketful Of Sunshine (9)
7 Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown: No Air (7)
8 Chris Brown: Forever (11)
9 Usher ft. Young Jeezy: Love In This Club (6)
10 Metro Station: Shake It (14)