Britney Spears is working on new album, label says

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Britney Spears is working on a new album, her label said on Wednesday, as the U.S. pop star seeks to rebound from a period of troubling behavior and hospital stints for psychiatric evaluations.

Spears, 26, has spent much of the past 18 months in the headlines for an ugly divorce, losing custody of her two sons, rehab treatment, and erratic behavior like shaving her head and attacking a photographer's car with an umbrella.

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

Now her manager, Larry Rudolph, and label, Jive Records, said in a statement that Spears, one of the world's most successful pop stars of the early 2000s, "is spending her summer in the recording studio, working on a brand new album."

"She's working with a team of top-notch producers and songwriters and we're very excited about what she's accomplished so far. No album release date has been confirmed yet," the statement said.

Spear's last album, "Blackout," debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 last November, but quickly slid down the chart.

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, and have started mediation sessions to work out custody and avoid a trial set for August.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Vicki Allen)