Michael Badalucco and Edie Falco announce the nominees

The nominations were announced in Los Angeles by Sopranos actress Edie Falco and Michael Badalucco of legal drama The Practice.

TV movie RKO 281 - about Orson Welles' making of Citizen Kane - has 13 nominations, while another feature-length production, Annie, receives 12 nods.

Introducing Dorothy Dandridge - starring Halle Berry - and the sitcom Will & Grace got 11 nominations each.

Familiar

Familiar names to appear on this year's list include Frasier, Friends and Sex in The City - all competing for the comedy series prize.

Last year's comedy winner, Ally McBeal, failed to make the category this time around and received only three nominations in all.

Spin City star Michael J Fox, who earlier this year announced his retirement from the show to battle Parkinson's Disease, is among the nominees for lead actor in a comedy. His rivals for the prize include Frasier's Kelsey Grammer.

Kelsey Grammar will be looking to add to his 1998 Emmy

British hopes lie with veteran actresses Dame Maggie Smith and Vanessa Redgrave. Both are nominated for best actress in a mini-series or movie - Dame Maggie for David Copperfield and Redgrave for If These Walls Could Talk 2.

Comedian Eddie Izzard is nominated for two awards for his Dress To Kill show, shown by the Home Box Office network.

Last year, The Sopranos had 16 nominations, but won only two awards.

This year, its rivals for best drama series are The West Wing, ER, The Practice, and Law & Order.

James Gandolfini is again nominated for best actor in a drama series for his role as Tony Soprano, a mobster who finds himself under stress and has to go and see a psychiatrist.

He will be competing against West Wing star Martin Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlet, and NYPD Blue actor Dennis Franz.

Michael J Fox could bow out of Spin City in style

Sheen's screen wife, Stockard Channing, is in the running for the best supporting actress award, while lead actress nominees include Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex in the City.

This year's ceremony will see the scrapping of the traditional voting system, in which panels were invited to spend a weekend shut away in a hotel viewing the nominated shows.

The system tended to attract older academy members, so this year, judges will be allowed to view the programmes alone.

The awards will be presented on 10 September at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles.