New Spears album expected by Christmas

Britney Spears's new album is now expected to be released by the end of this year.

Although recent reports claimed that the Toxic singer had pushed back her album to the beginning of 2008, it is now believed that her record label wants her to release the new material by Christmas.

They hope that a new image will help to draw a line under the star's personal struggles, which hit the headlines earlier this year.

A source told the Daily Star: "It's all full steam ahead with the Britney album. She's hard at work recording the last of the songs and the label wants people to hear them as soon as possible. Britney is working on a new image and sourcing video ideas to get everything in place by Christmas."