It has been one of the hottest rumours on the Internet - leaked photos which appeared to show that Britney Spears had finally taken up Playboy's £20million offer to pose nude.

Cyberspace is full of plenty of dubious pictures of celebrities - real and faked - but these pictures appeared to be the real deal and there was huge interest in them.

But a photographer yesterday put an end to the debate by saying he took the pictures and they were not of the pop star.

The black-and-white shots appeared on dozens of websites, many advertising them as leaked Playboy images of Spears.

The Internet was soon humming with chatrooms full of debates on whether they were real or fake.

One chatroom user wrote: 'Wow! That model does not just resemble her, she could pass for her identical twin.'

But photographer Eric Striffler has said his images were glamour shots of a model called Emily, and insisted he did not set out to create lookalike pictures.

'Emily is a great model and we were shooting some tasteful, glamorous shots,' he added. 'It was only later we realised how much they looked like Britney.'

Mr Striffler did say he would love to take real photos of Spears for Playboy.

Britney's spokesperson said the star had been approached 'many times' by Playboy, with £20million reportedly on offer.

'They even offered her cash to pose on the cover, wearing clothes. I still said no.

'She doesn't want to go that way at this point in her life,' she added.