In an interview broadcast on NBC's Today show, Jermaine Jackson also says he wishes he had died instead of his younger brother, and that Michael was "a gift from Allah."

Jermaine said yesterday: "He went too soon. I don't know how people are going to take this, but I wish it was me."

On Wednesday, Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine said a public memorial was in the works but it would not be held at Neverland.

Local media said it may be held next week at the Staples Center or the bigger Los Angeles Coliseum, venue for the 1984 Olympic Games.

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A source said permits for a burial at the sprawling Santa Barbara, California, estate could not be arranged in time.

Separately, nearly two in three Americans say news organizations have given too much coverage to the death, but half say the media have struck the right balance between covering the pop star's personal life and musical career.

In a Pew Research Center poll, 64 percent of those surveyed said Jackson's death has received too much coverage, 29 percent said the story received the right amount and 3 percent said the story got too little attention.

Thirty percent said they followed the story very closely, though that number jumped to 80 percent among blacks, according to the independent public opinion research group.

Pew interviewed about 1,000 adults for the poll, which has a margin of error of plus-or- minus 3.5 percentage points. AGENCIES