Britney Spears to spend a month without her kids

Britney Spears' apparent no-show in court in Los Angeles on Monday has cost the troubled pop star dearly - she will go a month without seeing her two young sons.

Spears arrived at Los Angeles Superior Court for a crucial custody hearing four hours late and then reportedly refused to enter the courthouse.

The singer left, only to return minutes later appearing briefly before an army of paparazzi and then speeding off again.

She spent Monday afternoon in a San Fernando Valley, California church, dressed in one of the outfits she wore when she wed ex-husband Kevin Federline in 2004. The star then went for lunch with paparazzi boyfriend Adnan Ghalib before heading home.

And her bizarre behaviour only served to frustrate the Los Angeles Commissioner overseeing Spears' custody battle with Federline; he ruled the singer will have to wait until the next hearing on February 19 to fight for access to her sons Sean Preston and Jayden James.

The order came after several of the police officials and paramedics who witnessed the apparent breakdown, which cost Spears her visitation rights at the beginning of the month testified about the incident.

The authorities were called to Spears' LA home on 3 January after she refused to hand over her youngest son, Jayden James, to a Federline employee at the end of a scheduled visit.

Spears then locked herself and the one-year-old in a bathroom for three hours. She was later admitted to hospital.