Teenage pop sensation Britney Spears has swept the board in Dublin, scooping four prizes at this year's MTV Europe Music Awards.

She brushed off competition from the likes of Madonna, Ricky Martin and George Michael to pick up prizes for Best Pop Act, Best Female Performer, Best Breakthrough Act and Best Song for the smash hit single, Baby One More Time.

It was a busy night for awards host Ronan Keating, who went on to pick up two awards with his group Boyzone, for Best UK and Ireland Act, and for By Request, which won Best Album.

U2's lead singer Bono was presented with a special Free Your Mind Award in recognition of his work for the Jubilee 2000 campaign to cancel Third World debt.

A tribute from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was broadcast at the awards.

He said: "Bono, as an artist, activist, and advocate for the poor, you have made a real difference, crossed boundaries and have broken taboos."

On receiving the award, Bono said: "This is going to make me worse."

This is the sixth year of the awards, a spin-off from the MTV Video Music Awards held in the US each September.

British acts fared well, with Fatboy Slim netting the Best Dance accolade and Blur winning Best Video for Coffee And TV.

Will Smith claimed his first award since 1997, for Best Male act, while Eminem won the Best Hip Hop act.

Whitney Houston, one of the performers at the ceremony, beat Lauryn Hill, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez and TLC in the Best R&B section.

The audience was treated to performances by stars including The Cardigans, Mariah Carey, The Corrs, Jamiroquai, Puff Daddy, and Iggy Pop.

The two-hour show was billed as the biggest televisual event ever staged in Ireland, and was broadcast to a potential audience of one billion people.

More than 3,000 hotel rooms in Dublin had been booked out for artists and MTV staff as well as the hundreds of showbusiness journalists.

The winners in full:

• Best Male Act - Will Smith.
• Best Female Act - Britney Spears.
• Best Breakthrough Act - Britney Spears.
• Best Group - Backstreet Boys.
• Best Pop Act - Britney Spears.
• Best R&B Act - Whitney Houston.
• Best Hip-Hop Act - Eminem.
• Best Dance Act - Fatboy Slim.
• Best Rock Act - The Offspring.
• Best Album - Boyzone, By Request.
• Best Song - Britney Spears, Baby One More Time.
• Best UK & Ireland Act - Boyzone.
• Best Video - Blur, Coffee And TV.
• Best Italian Act - Elio e le Storie Tese.
• Best German Act - Xavier Naidoo.
• Best Nordic Act - Lene Marlin.
• Free Your Mind Award - Bono.