A judge has granted a preliminary decree of divorce for former Beatle Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, according to The Associated Press.

Justice Hugh Bennett says the divorce could be finalized in six weeks plus a day. He already has awarded Mills a settlement of $47.5 million.

According to Reuters, neither McCartney nor Mills were in court for the decree nisi.

Bennett said: "On the petition for divorce presented by Miss Heather Mills, I pronounce the decree nisi of divorce on the grounds of two years' separation.

"Sir Paul McCartney has consented to the decree being granted on these grounds."

The brief hearing contrasted with the protracted and bitter fight over the divorce settlement earlier this year.

In March, the judge blasted Mills, branding her evidence as "inconsistent and inaccurate."

McCartney married the former model and charity campaigner in 2002, four years after his first wife Linda died of breast cancer. They have a daughter, Beatrice.