George Michael is to marry his long-term partner, he has revealed.

The singer said he and Kenny Goss, his lover of nine years, hope to hold a small, private ceremony sometime early in the New Year, after gay civil partnerships become legal in Britain next month.

He said: "I'm sure Kenny and I will be doing the old legal thing, but we won't be doing the whole veil and gown thing. It'll be relatively soon after it comes in, probably early next year."

Michael, 42, who was speaking after the premiere last night of a new documentary about his career, has also signalled the end of his feud with Sir Elton John following one of the most public pop rows of recent years.

He said he would attend the civil partnership ceremony of Sir Elton and David Furnish next month, one of the first following the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act.

Michael fell out with Sir Elton after he implied Michael's career was suffering as a result of personal issues and that he needed to "get out more".

He responded by writing an open letter to his former friend, claiming Sir Elton knew nothing about his private life. Michael said: "All is forgiven now." He added: "I wished I hadn't written him that public letter either, but I was incredibly hurt.

"I think he was having a bad day and he said some stuff he shouldn't have. We still haven't really talked abut it but we are friends again. We had dinner with some friends. There was a lot of bitching going on round that table that night. But we are friends again now and I'm looking forward to his wedding." In the film George Michael: A Different Story, Sir Elton speaks of how Goss must provide the same support to Michael as Furnish does for him.

But Michael said his own "marriage" would be a "small, private ceremony", adding: "We'll probably do it here, not abroad." He added that he and gallery owner Goss who, unlike Furnish, avoids the limelight, had not discussed staging lavish celebrations.

"I'm not very romantic about it to be honest, I think Kenny probably would be if I let him, but it's just not me." He added: "We want to do it, just in case - you never know, I could get hit by a bus and the poor man could have nothing."

Michael said nothing about his future career plans although he hinted he might elaborate next Monday, when the film has a gala screening in London. He has spoken previously of his ambition to write a contemporary musical, perhaps for the screen.

In the documentary Goss speaks of how the pair met in 1996 in a spa, and Michael admits he was not even sure if his future partner was gay when he first met him. It was not until their second date that he realised he was.

The film, directed by Southan Morris, charts Michael's 21-year, 85 million record-selling career from his rise to fame in Wham! in the Eighties. It includes his 1998 arrest for lewd conduct at a public lavatory in Beverly Hills, which forced his homosexuality into the public domain.

Of that episode he said: "All the humiliation has gone and I can look back on it and laugh. I think, looking back to that day, it was my total aim subconsciously to get caught and come out.

"I felt so angry at my mum's death at the time and I felt very self-destructive. I was in such denial on so many levels - anger, grief - and it almost felt as though my mum sent me into that toilet." He also talks about the pain of losing his Brazilian boyfriend to Aids in the early Nineties.

Under the Civil Partnership Act, the first gay marriages can be staged on 21 December. The Government predicts up to 22,000 gay couples will marry in the first five years.