Westlife to take hiatus in 2012

"and we say 'WHAT?!' and 'WHY?!'"

Irish pop stars Westlife are planning to take a break from the band and spend 2012 working on "other projects".

The four-piece is set to release a second greatest hits album this Christmas (11) and singer Kian Egan admits it'll be the last group venture for a while.

He tells Britain's Sunday Star, "We'll be taking a good while away from the spotlight from next year. We've all got other projects on the go and I don't want people to get sick of hearing us.

"I want us to go back to having tour hits from an album - we only had one from the last record."

But Egan's keen to reassure fans the band will be back together before long, insisting, "That doesn't mean we're splitting."

source: contactmusic.com