Scary and Phoenix Chi en route to Thailand last week

Gulzar is said to have accepted the deal following legal advice that under English law, which takes into account the length of marriage, it was all he could expect.

It's thought Gulzar originally demanded �10m - half the Spice Girl's fortune.

The report adds that 24-year-old Mel, who is currently in Thailand, will get custody of their 10-month-old daughter Phoenix Chi.

Gulzar will be given regular access to the child as part of the deal which lawyers have spent the last month working out.

Although the details have yet to be finalised, negotiations are said to have been amicable.

The couple, who met in 1998 when Gulzar was a dancer on a Spice Girls tour, endured an often stormy marriage that reportedly ended in a blazing row on New Year's day.

Earlier this week he moved out of the �2.5m mansion in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and into an �800-a-week rented apartment in north London.