VETERAN rocker Rod Stewart shares top billing with the Queen's grand-daughter, Zara Phillips, and Coronation Street stalwart Johnny Briggs in the New Year Honours published today.

Stewart, famed for his spiky hair and gritty voice, becomes a CBE as his career moves into its fifth decade at the top.

He is joined by Corrie's Briggs (MBE), who retired from the soap earlier this year having played dodgy businessman Mike Baldwin since the mid-1970s.

Briggs, 71, said it was the hectic schedule that led to his retirement.

Phillips, 11th in line to the throne, who three weeks ago was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, also becomes an MBE, for services to equestrianism.

The award, the first received by a senior royal in the New Year list, crowns a fantastic year for her after she won gold at the World Equestrian Games and the European Championships.

Today's list coincides with an announcement that recipients can in future wear a new emblem in the form of a buttonhole badge to show they have been honoured.

Actor and comedian Hugh Laurie, who has become a headline TV name in the US, gets an OBE. And there is a knighthood for blind jazz pianist George Shearing.

In sport, there is an OBE for Ian Woosnam, who led the European golf team to a famous Ryder Cup victory over the US this year.

He said he was over the moon, and added: "The Ryder Cup was a fantastic event and is always going to be the pinnacle of my career. But to get an honour like this on top of it is brilliant.''

Steven Gerrard, the England midfielder and Liverpool's captain, was named an MBE.

Welsh rugby legend Gareth Edwards becomes a CBE. He was voted the greatest rugby union player of all time in a poll conducted by Rugby World magazine in 2003.

There is an MBE for Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton, regarded as Britain's most popular boxer since Naseem Hamed.

He is undefeated in his major career fights as a welterweight and light welterweight, with a record of winning nearly all his bouts by a knockout. He said: "It came as a great surprise. When I first laced on the gloves, I never thought I would become a world champion, let alone receive an MBE."

Receiving a knighthood is inventor James Dyson, who revolutionised the vacuum cleaner.

He said: ''I hope something like this will encourage other engineers and people who have ideas and inventions to go out and commercialise them and make them international successes.''

Explorer David Hempleman-Adams becomes a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order for services to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme.

In 1998, he became the first man in history to reach the geographic and magnetic North and South Poles, as well as climb the highest peaks in all seven continents, a feat many believed was impossible.

Bernard Matthews CBE, the famous Norfolk turkey farmer, is made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for services to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

Mr Matthews became a household name thanks to his TV advertisements for his "bootiful" turkey products.

He is a charter founder member of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

There are awards also for gardening expert Dr David Hessayon, the world's biggest-selling non-fiction author, and Alexander McCall Smith, writer of the best-selling The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

There is a CBE for Penelope Keith, one of the most prominent and popular actresses of her generation.

She is famous for her portrayal of upper-crust, aristocratic characters in TV series The Good Life and To The Manor Born.

Speculation early last month that David Beckham, the former England football captain, was to receive a knighthood proved groundless.