LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pop idols the Backstreet Boys sold five million copies of their new album in its first week of worldwide release, setting a new international record, the group's publicist said Tuesday.

In the United States alone, ``Black & Blue'' (Jive) sold 1.6 million units in the six days from its Nov. 21 street date, enough to replace the Beatles at the top of the charts.

However the U.S. tally paled next to the first-week record of 2.4 million units set in March this year by their boy band rivals, 'N Sync , or Eminem's 1.8 million bow in May.

The Backstreet Boys can lay claim as the first act to achieve million-plus first-week U.S. sales with back-to-back albums, said publicity firm Mitch Schneider Organization (MSO). Their last album, ``Millennium,'' debuted with a then-record 1.1 million copies in May 1999. Its worldwide sales stand at more than 30 million, MSO said.

Details of the previous international record for an album's first week sales were not given in the statement.

``Black & Blue'' is already multi-platinum in Canada (5 times), Japan, Korea, Mexico and Venezuela; platinum in Arabia (Gulf), Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States; and gold in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. Different countries have different definitions of gold and platinum.