Britney Spears files petition for divorce

BEIJING: Pop diva Britney Spears has filed for divorce from her husband Kevin Federline of two years and one month.

Spears, 24, cited irreconcilable differences in her divorce petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, according to media reports.  Spears' publicists were not immediately available for comment.

Spears asked for sole custody of her sons with Federline -- one-year-old Sean Preston and James Jayden, born on September 12. However, in the petition she has agreed to let Federline have visitation rights.

News of Spears' divorce came just one day after she made a surprise appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, where she laughed and joked with the veteran chat show host but gave no clue of the announcement.

Spears married Federline after a six-month courtship in 2004. In January that year, she also married childhood friend Jason Alexander in Las Vegas, and annulled it after 55 hours.

Rumors that their marriage was rocky had been circulating for months. But Spears denied that she was estranged from her husband, saying he had helped her weather the ups and downs of her second pregnancy.

Spears shot to superstardom in late 1998, with her smash hit debut album Baby One More Time. Next year she came out with another chart-topping success Oops! I Did It Again.

According to Time magazine, Spears has sold over 76 million records worldwide and her 31 million albums sold in the US make her the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history.