[Arneldo]

THE SPICE Girls are to perform on this week's Strictly Come Dancing show - in a snub to Simon Cowell.

Victoria, Geri and Mel C will sing alongside dancing show supremos Emma Bunton and Mel B.

It's a real victory for the BBC show which snatched the reunited band's services from the clutches of ITV rival The X Factor.

And it proves that tensions still simmer between the two Simons - Fuller, who is behind the Spice reunion, and X Factor head honcho Cowell.

Strictly Come Dancing star judge Bruno Tonioli let slip to The Sun about the Strictly Spice surprise at an English National Ballet show last night.

"We have some very special guests on the show this week - the Spice Girls. It will be a lot of fun," Bruno revealed at the launch of The Snow Queen production.

The band are recording their performance tomorrow and will sing their best-loved Christmas No.1 hit 2 Become 1 for Sunday's results show.

And it's thought Emma and Mel B will take the opportunity to show off their nifty moves to the Strictly audience.

Emma wowed viewers on last year's series of the Beeb show, while Mel B did the same on this year's Stateside version Dancing With The Stars.

A source said: "Getting the Spice Girls on the show is a real coup for Strictly. They're the hottest thing around this Christmas, especially as they're back in the UK for a string of dates on their tour.

"I know The X Factor were desperate to get the band on for the semi-final or the final but it was Strictly that won out in the end. You do have to wonder if it wasn't Fuller's way of getting one over on Cowell.

"All the girls love the show, especially as two of them have taken part in it!"

The feud between Cowell and Fuller is well-documented and punctuated with lawsuits and court battles.

They are thought to have fallen out after Cowell's success as the ascerbic judge of the Pop Idol series which was exported to America as American Idol.

Fuller also went to war with Cowell over the X Factor, claiming it was a copy of his successful Pop Idol format.

The Sun