Potter row settled as Asda pays up

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Asda said it withdrew the statement and would be selling the book when it is published on Saturday. Its order of 500,000 copies of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows had been in doubt after the dispute broke out.

An Asda spokeswoman said: "Asda apologise unreservedly to Bloomsbury for its press release dated July 15 and withdraw this statement and we look forward to a good relationship with Bloomsbury going forward including selling the latest Harry Potter book from 0001 am BST on Saturday July 21 and many other Bloomsbury books in the future."

Minna Fry, marketing director of Bloomsbury, said: "We are pleased that this situation has been resolved and look forward to working with Asda in the future."

Asda had accused the publishing house of "attempting to hold children to ransom" by hiking up the recommended retail price (RRP) of the seventh and final instalment of JK Rowling's story to £17.99.

Peter Pritchard, Asda's director of general merchandise, had accused Bloomsbury of "blatant profiteering". The store chain had pointed out that the first book in the series, Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, had an RRP of £11.99 in 1997 and the sixth, Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince, was published in 2005 with an RRP of £16.99.

Asda claimed during the dispute that the row was over its plans to sell the book for only £8.87, but Bloomsbury said the delivery had been cancelled because Asda owed it money. Ms Fry had said the dispute was nothing to do with Asda's criticism or pricing policy.

She said: "It's to do with the fact that they owe us money and haven't settled their bills. It has been going on a while, going on for weeks actually, and we always said we wouldn't provide them with the books until that was sorted out. And that's what's happening." She refused to give the amount of money involved.

Meanwhile, in Israel, the launch of the book falls at 2:01am local time on Saturday - on the Jewish Sabbath, when Israeli law requires most businesses to close.

With Israelis already clamouring for the book, many bookstores are planning to launch it on time anyway. But this has drawn fire from Orthodox Jewish politicians, including Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai, who threatened to fine any store that opens on Saturday.