Thousands of Asian Harry Potter fans are counting down to what has been dubbed "P-day" with huge queues expected outside bookstores and a marketing blitzkrieg featuring secret train rides, fancy dress competitions and free breakfasts.

When the new Potter book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released on Saturday, children in select Indian homes will be sleeping in miniature castles, complete with fortress, turret and stone-effect loft bed versions of the Hogwarts castle.

Many less fortunate ones will be selling Harry Potter toys, tattoos and merchandise on the streets of India, demonstrating the all pervading reach and influence of the Potter phenomenon.

The new book hits shelves at one minute past midnight British Summer Time on Saturday, July 21, and anticipation, from Tokyo to New Delhi and from Sydney to China over how the last chapter ends may ensure it becomes the fastest-selling novel of all time.

Thousands of Potter fans dressed as wizards and witches will queue at shops, eager to learn the fate of Harry and his Hogwarts pals after author J.K. Rowling said she would kill off at least two characters.

Bookstores in the Philippines are expecting sell-out crowds.

"We are hoping to get wiped out," said Rhea Llamas, a marketing manager at Fully Booked.

In Sydney, Australia's largest city, one bookshop is taking 1,146 Potter fans aged from 2 to 84 on a steam train ride to a secret destination before they get their hands on the new Potter.

Gleebooks proprietor Roger Mackell said fire twirlers and musicians awaited the passengers -- as well as some special "guest" quidditch players.

"We've got the Durmstrang quidditch team arriving," he said.

MAGIC BREAKFAST

But Potter interest extends beyond the big towns into Australia's Outback where stores will attract fans with magic-themed fancy dress parties.

Stores in Taiwan and India have arranged for a "magic breakfast" for early customers.

"The topics in the book are international topics, even though it's not a book written in Taiwan," said Huang Hui-ling, an official of a Taiwan bookstore chain offering a launch party and breakfast for its first 100 visitors.

But as in Taiwan, most Potter fans in Japan will wait for the translation, with English not being their strong point.

Kinokuniya bookshop in Shinjuku, one of the most popular places to buy foreign books in central Tokyo, will open two hours earlier than usual and hold a countdown until the book goes on sale at 8:01 AM local time.

With reports of Internet leaks about the book's ending, some fans say they have stopped checking emails and surfing.

"It's just two more days. I don't want anyone telling me the ending," said Aniket Desai, a young Potter fan in Mumbai who said he will reach the bookstore in a Potter T-shirt before sunrise for his pre-ordered copy.

Beejay Bautista, a "faculty member" of Hogwarts Philippines, a local fan club, said he will stay up Saturday night to finish the book.

"There will be no rest. I'm wary of spoilers," the 25-year-old computer analyst said.

In China, authorities removed pages from Web sites that published reports and photographs of what they said may contain the eagerly awaited seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter book series.

Similar "leaks" were reported by the media in the United States, but earlier this week a spokeswoman for Potter's British publisher Bloomsbury called them "fan fiction."

The Potter books have been translated into 64 languages in more than 100 countries and the first six have together sold 325 million copies.

(Agencies CRI.cn July 20, 2007)