Britain's biggest music company, EMI, which has a CD manufacturing plant in Swindon, is reported to be in negotiations to drop top-selling artist, Mariah Carey.

The singer suffered an emotional breakdown after persuading EMI to sign a record four-album contract worth £57m. The first of those albums, Glitter, has sold only two million copies so far.

That has left the firm facing an estimated £7m loss and new boss, Alain Levy, was this week reported in an American newspaper to have initiated moves to cut the company's losses by paying Carey a lump sum to drop her.