Britney Spears poses nude for Harper's Bazaar

LOS ANGELES - A six-month pregnant Britney Spears has posed nude for the cover of the August issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine and an accompanying photo spread inside, much in the style of the famous 1991 Vanity Fair cover of a naked and heavily pregnant Demi Moore.

On the Harper's Bazaar cover, a dark-haired Spears covers her breasts with her arms and crosses her legs at the knee, as she sits smiling into the camera.

Harper's said pop singer Spears "was never more beautiful" than when it photographed her a week ago and that it was the first time it had printed a nude photo on its cover.

The magazine added, "Since word leaked out about the shoot on Monday, people have been desperate to get their hands on the exclusive photos which were posted on various websites without permission from the magazine."

The former teen idol whose hit songs include Oops, I Did It Again, Spears has frequently complained that she is hounded by paparazzi and earlier this month appealed to them to leave her alone. She also recently came under criticism for driving with her baby on her lap while fleeing a photographer.

In an interview with NBC Today show host Matt Lauer, she tearfully admitted to being "an emotional wreck," and defended husband Kevin Federline from sniping in tabloids.

- REUTERS