Ronan Keating has defended himself after it emerged that his new album has only sold 181 copies so far in home country Ireland.

The Boyzone singer released his latest solo effort 'Fires' this week and it charted at No.4 in the UK midweek update.

However, it seems to have sold few in Ireland - 181 according to reports - but Keating told FM104 that the country is naturally not usually keen on buying albums. He said:

"It's rubbish. The number one album midweek here sold about 700 - it's not like sales for anything are sky high. Album sales in Ireland are never going to keep you in Gucci - you do it to make a presence.

Keating continued: "They didn't include my download sales either and the downloads were quite substantially more than that but I'm not going to get into a battle about it. Hopefully I'll be top three in the UK. When I saw what was written here in Ireland I was like, 'What the hell?' I mean, it's number four in the UK midweek charts already."