The British queen has reportedly rebuffed pop star Michael Jackson's efforts to get knighted.

The Sun quoted Bob Jones, a former employee of Jackson, as saying: "We spent a fortune trying to communicate with the Queen's people to try to get them to make him a knight, but they were not interested."

Jackson was recently acquitted of child abuse charges in California.

According to Jones, Jackson wanted to be alongside Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney of the Beatles and Sir Cliff Richard as few of the privileged music stars to be knighted.

Jones had worked for Jackson for 34 years before he was fired. He is working on a book about his time as a Jackson employee.