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

A call to a 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 January 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 hospitalisations in a psychiatric facility in 2008.

Spears had been in a downward spiral of bizarre behavior since divorcing Federline in November 2006. She shaved her head, ran over a celebrity photographer's foot and attacked a vehicle with an umbrella, among other strange behaviors.

Spears and her estate were placed under a temporary conservatorship after she was taken to UCLA Medical Center on January 31. Conservatorships are granted for people deemed unable to care for themselves or their affairs.

Another court commissioner said on Friday the conservatorship case was in ‘a holding pattern’.

A federal judge is considering a claim by a lawyer who says he represents the pop star and that the terms of the conservatorship violate her civil rights. The lawyer said the case should be moved to the federal US District Court.