It’s not only her first world tour, it’s the sensual star’s first full-blown U.S. outing as well. Until now, her American fans have had to make do with Shakira appearances at special live events and various televised awards shows.

Her North American adventure begins in San Diego and stops in 30 arenas before wrapping in February. Only the November dates have been announced.

The singer takes a brief trip to Europe in December for shows in England, Germany and Spain.

Tickets for Shakira’s North American performances go on sale beginning October 5. Tickets will be available through all the outlets and tour promoter Clear Channel Entertainment (www.cc.com) will conduct a pre-sale for a limited number of tickets to any one show in a number of selected cities. The pre-sale begins at 1 a.m. October 1 and is open to those who pay to join Clear Channels’s getAccess program.

Fans can also reserve their tickets in advance by joining the official Shakira fan club at www.clubshakira.com.

Tour Of The Mongoose is being hailed as “spectacular, theatrical, phenomenal!” by its promoters, but no one has explained the mongoose part, or whether any of the vermin-chomping critters will actually be involved in the show.