Britney Spears says new album is "best work ever"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Britney Spears says her sixth album will be out within nine months as the U.S. pop star seeks to rebound from troubling behavior and hospital stints for psychiatric evaluations.

In an interview with OK! magazine released on Wednesday, the 26-year-old says she has written more for the new album than her previous five studio albums, and describes it as having an "urban" feel.

"I'm writing every day, right here at the piano," said Spears, one of the world's most successful pop stars of the early 2000s. Her last album, "Blackout," debuted at No. 2 on Billboard 200 last November, but quickly slid down the chart.

Spears has given few interviews in recent years as her life spiraled out of control and she lost custody of her two sons.

Over the past 18 months she has been involved in an ugly divorce from Kevin Federline, entered rehab treatment several times, and exhibited erratic behavior like shaving her head and attacking a photographer's car with an umbrella.

But in the past six months, her father Jamie Spears has taken over management of her affairs and she was also mentioned as a possible Emmy award nominee for guest appearances on U.S. TV series "How I Met Your Mother."

When asked by OK! if she would like to do more acting, Spears said: "I'd love to, if I can find the right movie."

"Actually, I have a part that just came up. We're just trying to work it out with my schedule, with the children," she said.

A court recently extended Jamie Spears control over his daughter's affairs, which he shares with Los Angeles attorney Andrew Wallet, until the end of 2008.

Spears and her former backup dancer Kevin Federline, 30, were divorced last summer after two years of marriage. The couple have two children together, Sean Preston, 2-1/2, and James Jayden, 22 months.

She told OK! she would rather her sons did not pursue a career in entertainment.

"But I'd love them unconditionally if they wanted to. I'd just as soon they have a more normal childhood," she said.

Spears also spoke of being shocked at her sister Jamie Lynn's pregnancy. She was at the hospital when the 17-year-old star of Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101" TV show gave birth to a girl, Maddie Briann in June.

"That was special, but it was also strange because she's always been the baby, and now the baby was having a baby. It was mind-boggling. I was shocked a little bit," Spears said.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols)