Spears allowed to visit young sons

Kevin Federline on Friday agreed to give ex-wife Britney Spears visitation rights with their two young sons, nearly two months after the troubled pop star last saw them, his representatives said.

Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan said in a statement the former couple have agreed to a modification of a court order that had stripped Spears of her visitation rights. The statement did not elaborate.

Elliot Mintz, a spokesman for Kaplan and Federline, credited the development to Spears' father, James Spears, who came to Los Angeles earlier this month to help his daughter.

"James Spears went a long way in terms of stabilizing an environment that surrounded Britney which was wildly in flux," Mintz said. "It's clear Britney is in a different place now than she was a week or two ago."

Mintz said James Spears would be present during visitations, but he didn't provide more details.

A call to Spears' attorney was not immediately returned.

A court commissioner gave Federline sole physical and legal custody of their two little boys and suspended the pop star's visitation rights on Jan. 4.

Spears has not been allowed to see sons Jayden James, 1, and Sean Preston, 2, since an incident at her home that led to the first of her two hospitalizations in a psychiatric facility this year.

Before the hospitalizations, Spears had been in a downward spiral of bizarre behavior since divorcing Federline in November 2006. She shaved her head, was seen in public without underwear, ran over a celebrity photographer's foot and attacked a vehicle with an umbrella, among other strange outbursts.

Spears' parents came to Los Angeles the second time their daughter was hospitalized. They have pushed to have her visitation rights restored, saying that would help Spears heal.

The 26-year-old pop star and her estate were placed under a temporary conservatorship after she was taken to UCLA Medical Center on Jan. 31. Conservatorships are granted for people deemed unable to care for themselves or their affairs.

The issue became more complicated when attorney Jon Eardley, who claims to represent Spears, filed papers on Feb. 14 to move her case to federal court. Eardley claimed the terms of the conservatorship violated her civil rights.

U.S. District Court Judge Philip Gutierrez has ordered Eardley to clarify why the case belongs in federal court. It was initially being tried in Superior Court.

Via associatedpress