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Britney Spears lost visitation rights to her two young sons last night after a stand-off over the boys at her Los Angeles home ended with the starlet being wheeled out on a stretcher and taken to hospital.

A Los Angeles judge awarded "sole legal custody and sole physical custody" of the boys - Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1 - to Spears' ex-husband, Kevin Federline, until another hearing on January 14.

The 26 year-old singer, who became a teen icon with No.1 hits such as ...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again", was being held in Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre for psychiatric evaluation after the latest drama in her high-profile personal melt-down.

On arrival at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Spears gave a middle-finger salute to the waiting paparazzi. A hospital source told the TMZ.com website that Spears was placed on a "5150 hold," meaning she was considered a danger to herself or others.

Her mother Lynne told Access Hollywood TV show: "Just say prayers."

Police were called to the singer's home in a gated community in Beverly Hills on Thursday night when she reportedly refused to return her boys after a court-ordered visit.

A police spokesman said officers went to the home to "peacefully resolve" a custody dispute, but were initially unable to talk to Spears. One report said she had locked herself in a room.

The troubled pop star has been feuding with her ex-husband Kevin Federline over custody of their two sons since the couple split up in late 2006.

Spears's fans have been shocked by her increasingly erratic behaviour, such as being photographed in public without her underwear, beating a car with an umbrella, and getting her head shaved bald. An attempt to revive her career at the MTV video music awards in September drew ridicule when she stumbled about the stage lip-synching her song "Gimme More."

In October, a judge limited Spears visitation rights to her children after she failed to submit to random drug testing required by the court at an earlier hearing which found she was a "habitual, frequent, and continuous" user of "controlled substances and alcohol."

After skipping two earlier appointments, Spears finally appeared to give a court-ordered deposition in the custody dispute on Thursday. But the two-hour session lasted just 14 minutes, and will have to be rescheduled. Her own lawyers have asked to withdraw from the case, citing a "breakdown in communications."

The stand-off at her home began just hours after she walked out of the deposition. US magazine reported on its web-site that the pop star refused to turn over her sons when her ex-husband's bodyguard arrived to pick them up at 7 pm. at the end of a court-ordered visit. Police were summoned to the house around 8 pm.

Sorrell Trope, Spears departing lawyer, told usmagazine.com: "In a normal case when someone shows up with a certified court order saying the kids need to be somewhere else, the police see to it that the order is obeyed. But that is in a normal case."

Spears was wheeled out of the house on a stretcher around 11:25 pm and loaded, smiling, into an ambulance. The singer went "completely psycho" as she was rushed to L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Thursday, a source told the magazine.

"They had to strap her down like a mental patient and she was going between laughing and hysterics," the source said, calling it "a total psychotic breakdown. She just went crazy."

On arrival at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Spears gave a middle-finger salute to the waiting paparazzi. A hospital source told the TMZ.com website that Spears was placed on a "5150 hold," meaning she was considered a danger to herself or others.

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