Britney Spears ran through a red light with her two sons strapped into the backseat of her car - causing the court-appointed monitor to crouch down in the front passenger's seat.

Spears was caught driving towards the intersection on Coldwater Canyon in Los Angeles raising her cell phone to her face while keeping her other hand on the steering wheel of her Mercedes-Benz.

But the star was clearly distracted and failed to see the lights turn red as she sailed past the junction and turned onto Mulholland Drive, luckily avoiding oncoming traffic.

The singer's latest driving misdemeanor came just hours after ex-husband Kevin Federline - who has been granted custody of their children - called for the singer to be banned from driving while Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, one, are in her care.

Federline's lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, called an emergency hearing to discuss the divorced couple's custody battle, after alleging Spears had missed eight out of 14 drug test requests.

Under the latest court rulings, the Toxic hitmaker is allowed to visit her children three times a week, with a court-appointed monitor accompanying them.