Singer Celine Dion has given birth to a baby boy, three weeks earlier than expected.

A statement from Dion's spokeswoman, Francine Chaloult, said the child, Rene Charles, weighed six pounds and eight ounces (three kilograms).

It is the first child for the 32-year-old Canadian singer and her husband and manager, Rene Angelil.

Mother and child are "doing marvellously well and are in perfect health", the statement said.

Angelil was at the birth - at 0600 GMT on Thursday in Florida - with one of Dion's sisters, Linda.

The couple have been trying to have a baby for many years, and Dion underwent in vitro fertilisation in New York last year.

In December, the singer - who is on a three-year sabbatical from her career - told a television interview she had a second fertilised egg stored at a New York clinic.

"It doesn't mean they're identical twins, but they were conceived at the same time," she said.

Asked whether she planned more children, she replied: "Another child? Yes, because we already have another child waiting for us in New York, making a stopover at this time. I surely couldn't live knowing that child is there."