'I'm not sexy' claims Kylie

It might not be obvious from her latest photo shoot - but diminutive pop singer Kylie Minogue does not think she is much to look at.

Indeed, the 34-year-old Australian can't understand why people get so worked up over her. "I don't see myself as a sex symbol," she said in a recent interview, adding: "Really, I don't know what all the fuss is about."

Kylie, it seems, has a different self-image, telling this month's Elle magazine: "I'm a drag queen in a woman's body... a very short drag queen. My so-called sexiness is like a Carry On film - end-of-the-pier fun."

But, if Kylie is trying to play down her sex appeal, Vanity Fair is not convinced. Featuring her in its third annual music issue, the magazine says that - until a couple of years ago - "the pocket-sized pop princess seemed slated for US oblivion".

Then came her album Fever, a hit in the US as well as Britain (where "her bum is more obsessed over than J Lo's") and Kylie was a transatlantic star. The article adds:

"While Madonna was devoting her energies to motherhood, Kylie stepped into the breach, becoming the pop phenomenon who is, to repurpose the words of Britney Spears, no longer a girl and very much a woman."

The latest issue of Vanity Fair goes on sale from Friday