The family of Michael Jackson met activist the Reverend Al Sharpton yesterday to discuss national memorial arrangements for the pop singer.

The family have yet to announce what plans they have for the funeral and whether they want a public service of remembrance.

Rev Sharpton told reporters: “I’m here to make sure Michael gets in death what he never got in life - he never got credit. He was not a freak, he’s a genius. He was not somebody who was eccentric, he was innovative and that innovation smashed barriers and he should be given a lot more credit than he’s been given."

Reports have said Jackson’s family is considering a series of simultaneous memorial services around the world for the singer, reflecting the global reach of the artist.

The Jackson family headed by patriarch Joe, 79, and his mother Katherine have moved swiftly to take control of Jackson's estate and his legacy. They announced that they had sole "personal and legal authority" to act on behalf of their son and appointed Londell McMillan, an entertainment lawyer, as the family's designated spokesman.

The Rev Sharpton, who plans to eulogize his friend at a memorial service tomorrow at the Apollo Theatre, New York, said the family was upset that so much of the news coverage of Jackson's death had focused on his trial and acquittal on child molestation charges and his possible abuse of prescription drugs — and wanted to promote a positive focus.

Mr McMillan told TV news stations that the family, which has ordered a second private autopsy, was closely watching the progress of the official investigation into Jackson’s death and that there were still unanswered questions about the hours leading up to it.

He said: "The family is quite deeply troubled with the circumstances around the death." Katherine Jackson selected Mr McMillan, of international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf after he represented Jackson in previous cases including a breach of contract lawsuit last year filed by a Bahraini prince. Mr McMillan has had several high-profile celebrity clients, including Prince, and is the publisher of the Source, a hip-hop magazine.

Friends of the Jackson family repeated today that he appeared to be fit and well only the day before. Joe Jackson told ABC7: “Michael was dead before he left the house. I’m suspecting foul play somewhere."

Frank DiLeo, Jackson's manager told NBC that he has done an energetic rehearsal only on Wednesday evening. Jackson, 50, suffered a cardiac arrest at his rented mansion last Thursday.

Family unhappiness centres round the role of Jackson's personal physician, Conrad Murray, who was with him when he collapsed. Today lawyers for Dr Murray, who has been treating Jackson for up to three years and had recently moved into Jackson rented mansion, issued a categorical denial that the doctor had adminstered an injection of Demerol, a narcotic painkiller, to Jackson before his death.

Attorney Edward Chernoff insisted his client was blameless. “There’s nothing in his history, nothing that Dr Murray knew, that would lead him to believe he would go into sudden cardiac arrest or respiratory failure. There was no red flag available to Dr Murray, which led him to believe he would have died the way he did. It’s still a mystery how he died," he told CNN.

Speculation has been rife that abuse of powerful prescription pain killers may have played a role in Jackson’s death, but Mr Chernoff insisted that Murray “never prescribed nor administered” two particular drugs, Demerol or Oxycontin, to Jackson.

He also defended how Dr Murray responded to the immediate crisis after Jackson lost consciousness. He said Jackson still had a faint pulse and his body was warm when by chance Murray found him in bed and not breathing.

“The doctor compressed his chest with one hand, braced his back with the other hand. He checked to make sure there was blood flow. There was. He was getting blood," he said.

Homocide detectives interviewed Dr Murray, 51, for three hours on Saturday. Mr Chernoff said police had cleared his client of any criminal wrongdoing. Preliminary results from the official post mortem examination found no indication of foul play. But because of additional toxicology tests, which will take up to six weeks to come back, no cause of death has been given.

The Los Angeles coroner’s office dismissed a report claiming that its autopsy found that Jackson was emaciated and almost bald when he died. “It is not accurate. Some of it is totally false,” said Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner. The office says that it needs to complete toxicology tests, expected to take four to six weeks, before it can state the cause of death.

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