Los Angeles ? Eight days after Hurricane Katrina hit, Michael Jackson announced he would release an all-star charity single within two weeks.

Nearly six months later, after questions about exactly who would be participating, the prince who has been hosting Jackson during his self-imposed exile in Bahrain said the song would come out by the end of this month.

In a telephone interview from Dubai last week, Sheik Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the son of Bahrain’s king, said: “The record is coming along great. We’ve been taking our time to perfect it and mix it.”

The song currently is titled “I Have This Dream,” and it includes Snoop Dogg, R. Kelly, Ciara, Keyisha Cole, James Ingram, Jackson’s brother Jermaine, Shanice, the Rev. Shirley Caesar and the O’Jays, the prince said.

Missing are James Brown, Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott and Lenny Kravitz, who Jackson spokeswoman Raymone Bain said in September had agreed to participate.

At the height of his fame, in 1985, Jackson and producer Quincy Jones brought dozens of superstars together to fight famine with his “We Are the World” anthem.

Michael Jackson,right, poses with Sheik Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, in August 2005, in Dubai. The Bahranian prince who has been Michael Jackson's host and musical collaborator says the pop star's long-planned charity song for victims of Hurricane Katrina will be released by the end of February, nearly six months after the Aug. 29 disaster.

But while there are some platinum-selling stars on this record – Ciara, R. Kelly and Snoop Dogg – it’s a far cry from the luminaries and legends who made “We Are The World” a classic. The release of the song also had been repeatedly delayed.

“We were wondering whether or not it was ever coming out,” Andy Gibson, co-manager of the O’Jays, said this week. “They recorded their part of it two or three months ago.”

The prince said the release had been delayed because additional artists wanted to contribute. But he declined to name those artists – “I’d like to keep that as a surprise” – or to name the company he claimed to have secured to sell the song via CDs and the Internet.

Prince Abdullah, 30, plans to release the song on his own 2 Seas label. “Michael did a wonderful track,” he said. “His voice was phenomenal.”

Jackson has been living in Bahrain since his acquittal in a molestation trial last year and now has a house there, the prince said. He didn’t know if Jackson plans to settle in the country permanently.