France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder won the ice dancing crown at the world figure skating championships in Gothenburg with a flowing and ethereal free dance routine.

Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir claimed the silver medal with a pitch-perfect performance to the soundtrack of the musical Umbrellas of Cherbourg that won them the highest technical marks of the evening.

Delobel and Schoenfelder, the European silver medallists and favourites for the Gothenburg gold after European champions Oxana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin's injury withdrawal, finished the three-part contest with a total score of 212.94 points.

With victories in two of the three legs of the ice dancing contest, the French couple's triumph was never in question as they danced to Michael Nyman's soundtrack to The Piano.

"It's a great night to win the title, and we've never been on the (world championship) podium before," said Delobel.

"It's a nice story with a happy ending."

Four Continents' champions Virtue and Moir, who stood a disappointing third after Wednesday's original dance, won the free dance and finished the competition on 208.80 points.

Russians Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski, bronze medallists in this year's European championships, took third place with a three-day total of 203.26 points after a dramatic performance to Rimsky Korsokov's Night on Bald Mountain.

Earlier on Friday Canadian Jeffrey Buttle won the men's short programme.

In a confident performance to Astor Piazzolla's Adios Nonino, Buttle took a surprise lead going into Saturday's final as several of the favourites, including defending champion Brian Joubert, made crucial mistakes.

Buttle, second in this year's Four Continents competition and bronze medallist at the Turin Olympics, scored the highest technical mark to end on 82.10 points, comfortably ahead of American Johnny Weir in second on 80.79 points.

Weir, coached by 1992 Olympic champion Viktor Petrenko and Galina Zmievskaia, turned in a near-faultless skate. Japan's Daisuke Takahashi was third on 80.40 points after a jump error.

Frenchman Joubert fell on his triple lutz and eked out 77.75 points to stand sixth after a two-point deduction. An ISU official said France had lodged an official protest over one of the deducted points, which was for the use of music with vocals.

Buttle said he felt "comfortable and confident" on the ice as he executed a clean short programme.

"We changed it before the nationals, the short programme, and ever since then it has been going really well," Buttle, who at 25 is a veteran in a sport increasingly dominated by youth, said.

At last year's championships in Tokyo, Buttle finished the short programme in second place but fell to sixth in the final.

"I feel like I am in the same position as last year except that I am way more prepared and I am way more consistent," he said.

"I am going to go out there tomorrow more positive, more confident than last year."

Takahashi played to the crowd like a rock star with funky moves to a hip-hop version of Swan Lake.

The clear audience favourite, Takahashi landed the best presentation mark but his overall score suffered from an unbalanced landing on a triple Axel early on in the routine.

"I don't know what happened, but I was nervous today," said the Japanese. "I want to do a perfect and more exciting programme (in the final)."

Joubert, who skated to Sebastien Damiani's All for You, said he had used the same music at the last Skate Canada competition as well as the European championships and that no referee had objected then.

The French skater said he was not worried about the final on Saturday.

"It is okay because we are close, so nothing is lost. I just want to do my job," he said.

Reuters